Emmerdale star Lisa Riley lied to bosses after drunken hotel room antics

Emmerdale's Lisa Riley has opened up about her past struggles with alcohol and how a particularly boozy incident led to a stern telling-off by ITV chiefs. Lisa, aged 48 and renowned for portraying the feisty Mandy Dingle in Emmerdale, has seen considerable longevity on the show, having graced screens for almost three decades.

Despite bringing life to the tumultuous Mandy Dingle on-screen, off-screen, Lisa has taken steps to cultivate a calm personal life by bidding farewell to alcohol. Chatting candidly on the Bee Sober podcast, Lisa disclosed her nine-year sobriety journey which began upon acknowledging an unhealthy relationship with drink, exacerbated by grief from her mother's passing.

Revealing details of her daily battle, the soap favourite admitted to indulging in a bottle of vino every evening and heavily relying on booze at social events. However, it was one specific episode that got Lisa into hot water with the Emmerdale chiefs, following a fib regarding the circumstances surrounding her wrist injury.

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Sharing the backstory on the podcast, Lisa reminisced about the time she ran the Manchester segment for ITV's Telethonan event comparable to Children in Need that ITV organised in 1988, 1990, and 1992. Collectively, these telethons raised copious sums for charities around Britain.

Hailing originally from Bury, Lisa recounted: "So do you remember when ITV did the Telethon? It was like their version of Children in Need, but ITV? Yeah. So I was hosting the Manchester side."

"And it was so much fun. And as you can imagine, the champagne was flowing like blooming water. Anyway, so it all finished. Everyone was, you know, obviously, we'd raised millions, brilliant charities."

"And I was in continuity for Emmerdale. Now, for anyone who's listening and doesn't know what continuity means, we film completely out of order. So within one day, I will probably get changed six times. There will be six different episodes, but the same sets, right? So I'm heavily in continuity for Emmerdale, filmed either side of each episode."

"And idiot here, obviously full of champagne and very, you know, happy with life, decides to jump from hotel bed, from bed to bed, doing fame jumps from bed to bed. Only I fell on one of the jumps and I broke my wrist, right? Well, I didn't know I broke my wrist because I was so full of champagne, didn't really hurt that much."

She went on to say: "I've literally put it under a bit of cold water, woke up and then bear in mind, on this particular day, I'm supposed to be starting filming at 4pm, back up in Leeds. Well, look at my wrist, it's completely blue and purple. And I'm like, oh, it's fine. And every time I was like, I'd be like, no, okay, I'll be fine."

"Anyway, put my clothes on, got dressed. And I got in the car and this woman in the lobby, she was like, she recognized me. She said, 'Miss Riley, I don't mean to be rude. I don't mean to be intrusive, but I think you've really damaged your wrist'. And I was like, oh no, I'll be fine. I'll be fine. And she said, 'please go and get an x-ray'."

Lisa revealed that she had to inform her Emmerdale bosses about a trip to A&E, where it was confirmed that her wrist was broken in two places. She said: "So I rang the exec producer and I'm absolutely cacking it thinking, what am I going to do? Because I'm in continuity."

Upon returning to set, Lisa discovered that the wardrobe department had devised a plan to conceal her injury. She explained: "They got me this huge chocolate brown cardigan, tucked it in the cast in hope of no one noticing. Well, I don't know if you remember, but years ago, David Letterman had his own chat show, you know, late night show in London, and he invited me on, and he decided to out what I'd done on television. Well, of course, I'd lied to my boss about how I'd done it."

"And I was like, 'thank you so much'. And that was one of those moments in life when I thought, wow, I did get away with quite a lot back in the day, being too raucous and too full of champagne, yeah."