Emmerdale’s Bear Wolf actor Joshua Richards lives a far less dramatic life away from the soap with his famous wife
Joshua Richards is a firm favourite on Emmerdale as Bear Wolf – but what do we know about the talented actor’s life with his famous wife?
Telly star Joshua joined the long-running ITV soap in 2019 as the father of Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt). And it didn’t take former wrestler Bear long to become a firm favourite with fans.
He’s also been involved in several big storylines. Especially at the moment as fans will recall he is currently being held in jail after confessing to killing Ray Walters (Joe Absolom) this year.
Bear ended up murdering evil Ray to stop him from killing son Paddy and Dylan (Fred Kettle), with Paddy and Dylan later helping Bear cover up the crime. However, Paddy ended up confessing to his involvement in the ordeal, resulting in him, and Dylan being charged with perverting the course of justice.
Away from the soap though, Bear actor Joshua lives a far less dramatic life with his wife of more than 30 years and fellow actress Sarah Parks – who is no stranger to appearing on TV screens.
Sarah has even appeared in Emmerdale playing barrister and later judge Hilary Browning on-and-off from 2001 to 2005. As well as Emmerdale, Sarah popped up on Coronation Street for 11 episodes as various characters.
In 1998 she played a midwife and between July and August 2021 Sarah portrayed DS Pullen, who was investigating the false imprisonment of Sarah Platt (Tina O’Brien).
Sarah was back on the soap again in January 2004 playing Council planning officer, Andrea Chaplin. Her last appearance was in 2007 as Linda, whose husband had an affair with Liz McDonald (Beverley Callard).
Her other credits include roles in The Bill, Shameless, Meet the Richardsons, Fat Friends, My Parents Are Aliens and Scott & Bailey.
Joshua and Sarah – who live in Halifax in West Yorkshire together – keep their relationship private and away from the spotlight, however, Joshua has spoken previously about Sarah.
In 2025, he credited her for supporting his health transformation after he dropped from 17 and a half stone to 13 and a half stone. Joshua said: “My health wasn’t too good. And I was tucking into all the wrong meals from Emmerdale catering like lasagne and chips.
“We read a book by Dr Meghan Rossi called Eat More Live Well – and that really helped me lose the weight. I did what it told me – ate more vegetables, more fibre and looked after my gut health.”
Joshua also recently spoke about Sarah during an interview with The Mirror. He said: “She has played a judge in Emmerdale before,” before admitting he thought it would have been Sarah who would bag a long-term role on a soap, not him.
He added: “In the end, I ended up being on Emmerdale and she is the one who supports me. I was only supposed to be in the soap for six months, but I’m now in my eighth year and it’s flown by. I love being in Emmerdale. It’s the best job in the world.”
Emmerdale airs Monday to Friday at 8:00pm on ITV1 and ITVX
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