Emmerdale star Natalie Ann Jamieson has opened up about her heartbreaking exit from the ITV soap after six years playing Amy Wyatt – and why she was ready to say goodbye to the character
Natalie Ann Jamieson, who has portrayed Amy Wyatt on the ITV soap Emmerdale for six years, recently discussed her departure from the show. In a tragic twist in tonight’s episode, her character Amy succumbed to her injuries and passed away after falling into an icy lake caused by a limo accident.
Although Amy was rushed to the hospital with severe hypothermia, she managed to express her love to her husband Matty Barton before dying of a cardiac arrest.
In a candid conversation with The Mirror’s Notebook, Natalie revealed why she decided it was time to bid farewell to Emmerdale. She had been seeking more challenging storylines: “I had been asking for meetings about what was coming up for Amy and saying that I’d really like some challenging, new stuff,” she explained.
Unfortunately, the writers had no significant plans for her character, leading to the decision of Amy’s death as an exit strategy—something Natalie was initially unaware of. Reflecting on her character’s demise, she mused, “It worked out that this was going to be Amy’s exit and I didn’t know it was going to be death at first. When they told me, I was like, ‘Oh! ‘ It’s really hard to know whether you would prefer for your character to die if you’re going, or to go in the back of a taxi.”
Natalie was aware that Amy’s departure from the village could have been a simple taxi ride, but she embraced the challenge of the icy lake stunt. She explained, “There’s always a chance that you could potentially go back and you’ve got all your friends there and you love to work there,” adding, “However, you are just going in the back of a taxi and the show were like, ‘We want to give her something big.'”
Discussing the details of the stunt, which involved Amy falling through ice while fleeing a crashed limo, Natalie revealed spending an entire day filming in the Emmerdale set car park. “The lake was made of wax and there was a hole that was built for the size of me,” she described.
“The ice was thinner and underneath, there was freezing cold water. I had a wetsuit on and it was two o’clock in the morning. I was really scared about that bit.”
In her character’s final moments, viewers saw Amy attempting to inform Matty that she had spotted a body under the ice, fearing it was the missing Nate Robinson, but Matty failed to grasp her words. Following the episode, Natalie took to Instagram to post a screenshot of her character’s tragic end, captioned with the poignant words: “We were meant to go old together.”
