Lexi King

Alexandra "Lexi" Claire King (nee Nicholls) is a fictional character in the British soap opera Emmerdale played by Sally Oliver. She appeared from 2007 to 2009.

Character's history

Lexi first appears when she is hanging around Home Farm. Rodney Blackstock asks her to leave, but she tells him she is related to the family. While he goes to check, she climbs into the house via the kitchen window, and when she is found, Carrie Nicholls says Lexi is her younger sister. Lexi stays in Emmerdale, and Carrie insists she get a job. Lexi soon starts at "The Woolpack" as a barmaid. While Carrie and Lexi have a difficult relationship, Lexi is close to Carrie's daughter Scarlett, and also becomes friends with Chas Dingle. Eli Dingle discovers that Lexi was previously in prison in Mexico. After leaving "The Woolpack", she gets a job at Eric's factory, and in late 2008, is appointed supervisor, over many more experienced and long-serving employees. This leads to resentment from the other workers, but things start to settle after a few months.

In September 2007, Lexi, Chas and Debbie Dingle (Charley Webb) steal a necklace worth £50,000 from a jewellery auction at Home Farm. Lexi cuts the power and, in the dark, Debbie snatches the necklace and hides it in her jacket. They then do a deal with Eric Pollard and agree to split the money four ways. However, Debbie is not happy with this, so she and Eric concocted a plan to replace the necklace with a fake and keep the real one. They plan to sell it and split the money, unknown to Chas and Lexi, but Lexi hears Debbie and Pollard discussing this and they fight in the street. This ends when the necklace slips out of Lexi's hand and goes down the drain. Carrie is horrified at Lexi's behaviour and in despair, asks what had happened to her since their mother died. Lexi's response is to tell Carrie that their mother told Lexi that she was not her real mother. Lexi is in fact Carrie's daughter. Carrie gave birth to her when she was 14 and her parents had raised Carrie's baby themselves. Lexi wanted Carrie to acknowledge that they were mother and daughter but Carrie would not. She tells Lexi that her father was called Barry and was three years older than her. Carrie had been impressed with him because he had a car but she wasn't in love with him. Disappointed, Lexi leaves the village for a while.

Lexi begins sleeping with Ross Kirk, not realising Chas, by now her best friend, is also sleeping with him. Carl sees them together and tells Lexi, who is furious and tells Chas. Chas sees that Lexi is interested in Carl King (Tom Lister) and warns her to stay away from him. However, Lexi ignores her and sleeps with Carl, hoping he would help her become Scarlett's trustee at King & Sons. He does not and when Chas finds out about Lexi and Carl, she ends her friendship with Lexi. When Carl leaves King & Sons to work with Donald De Souza, Matthew King blackmails Lexi into spying on Carl for him; if she refused, he would tell Scarlett about her being a former lap dancer. Carl's ex, Chas, works out what Lexi is planning, and warns Carl but he hires her anyway. They soon begin sleeping together and, as she falls in love with Carl, Lexi is increasingly reluctant to work for Matthew. Carl finds that Matthew was using the proposals he had been working on and blames Jimmy King. After punching Jimmy, he and Donald tell Carl the truth. Carl makes up with his brothers and Lexi loses her job. Although Carl is angry, they soon made up.

When Lexi returns from Carrie's wedding in Thailand, she tells Carl that Carrie had told her about him murdering his father Tom King. The revelation means Carl feels he has to stay with Lexi, despite being about to dump her for Anna De Souza. By December 2008, Lexi is involved with many King's family activities and is living with them. After Matthew's death and the company going bust, they are forced to move into Mill Cottage. These changes make the family want to make a new start, and Scarlett wants to join her mother in Canada, but Lexi persuades them to stay until the New Year, and they later decide not to leave the area. After a brief engagement, Lexi and Carl marry on 31 March 2009. The wedding almost does not happen, when Carl does not appear. Unknown to Lexi, he had been trying to persuade his former love, Chas, to be with him again. She refuses, so he goes ahead with the wedding.

In April 2009, Lexi tells Carl that she wants a baby. Carl unwillingly agrees. In June, Lexi discovers that she is pregnant but days later, collapses and is rushed to hospital, suffering an ectopic pregnancy. A few days later, the consultant told Lexi that, because her remaining fallopian tube is badly damaged, she is unlikely to conceive naturally. He recommended she and Carl try IVF treatment. Around the same time, Lexi lost her job when the factory closed. Carl refuses to go ahead with the IVF, finally telling Lexi that he does not want any more children. He suggests they separate if she wants children that badly but she decides that Carl means more to her than having a family of her own. However, on 13 August Lexi and Carl have an confrontation on the roof of the hospital where Nicola De Souza (Nicola Wheeler) had recently given birth. Carl confesses he never loved her and only married her because she knew he killed his father. She then decides to leave the village.

Reception

In 2009 Ruth Deller of entertainment website Lowculture praised Lexi's exit storyline branding it as heartbreaking, being her favourite storyline of the time, also stating: "Another character bowing out this month, but this time doing so in heartbreaking style. Sally Oliver’s portrayal of Lexi going through an ectopic pregnancy was fantastic, and the explosion of Lexi and Carl’s relationship provided a very emotional and well-written departure. Applause all round."^[1]

References