Michelle Hardwick has hit out at homophobic trolls.
The \'Emmerdale\' actress - who is married to the soap\'s producer Kate Brooks - played Charity Dingle\'s fiancee Vanessa Woodfield on the ITV show until the pair\'s split last week, and while she has her critics, Michelle admitted messages of support outnumber the negative posts.
She\'s quoted by the Daily Mirror newspaper as saying: "I get a few, \'You just need a real man\', or \'Vanessa just needs a real man\' comments.
"You think, \'Oh right, really?\' And then you look at their profile picture and you think, \'Yep, you\'d be it\'.
"But soaps are fabulous at normalising same-sex relationships. If you\'re showing two males or two females, you are normalising it in people\'s houses every night and that\'s what we need to be doing."
Michelle revealed the soap\'s fans are "very supportive" as a whole, and she revealed how her role on \'Emmerdale\' has helped other people to come out and be open about their own sexuality.
She added: "I had a tweet only the other day from a girl saying she was so scared to come out to her dad - but he said to her, \'Look, as long as you\'re happy, I\'m happy\'.
"So I tweeted her and said, \'I\'m proud of you. I\'m proud of your dad\'. If we\'re helping even just that one girl, then it\'s absolutely brilliant."
For their Memphis wedding in September, loved-up couple Michelle and Kate tied the knot at Elvis Presley\'s Graceland mansion.
The pair then travelled more than 200 miles to Nashville for their honeymoon, where they checked into the Hutton Hotel and were delighted to be upgraded.
Michelle previously tweeted: "Thank you so much for our bubbly and upgrade to a suite @HuttonHotel... All your staff have been delightful (sic)"
