'Emmerdale's James Thornton 'quit for wife Joanna Page'

Emmerdale star James Thornton has revealed that he quit the soap to spend more time with his wife Joanna Page.

The actor, who plays John Barton in the ITV1 soap, has been living in Leeds during the week and only sees the Gavin & Stacey star when he returns to London at the weekend.

He announced last month that he will be departing Emmerdale, despite pleas from show boss Stuart Blackburn to stay, the Daily Star Sunday reports.

"When I first joined I signed for three years but it took me a while before I got it into my head that I would be staying that long," he said. "But then once I started doing it, the people and the atmosphere, I really, really enjoyed it. The main problem has been the logistics - I still live in London.

"It's been hard. When you're on a soap your life is dictated by a two-week block. If you want to go anywhere you have to put a request in four months before. I'm really lucky as I do a lot of voiceover work, which is a safety net for me coming out of the show.

"But it certainly wasn't an easy decision to make. I did start to think could I do this for a bit longer? Stu asked if he could convince me to stay but I knew I'd made the right decision to go."

He added that his exit being tied in to the attempted murder of Cain Dingle is "brilliant timing" because he didn't want his character to leave the village "out of nowhere".

> Emmerdale star James Thornton to leave soap
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