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AS the star of 2024’s raunchiest romp-along Rivals, TV bombshell Emily Atack certainly isn’t shy when it comes to sex.
In episode one her character Sarah Stratton strips off for a game of naked tennis with the gigolo Tory MP Rupert Campbell-Black which sets the scene for the steamy drama’s sexy storylines.
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And in real-life Emily has never been one to shy away from candid conversations about her own sex life and desire to “celebrate women who aren’t afraid to express themselves”.
No stranger to nudity, she has also spent decades celebrating her sexuality with sexy shoots and barely-there bikinis.
And as well as slamming online trolls, she has hit back at the misogyny in her industry, saying any form of slut-shaming is often just a form of "anger towards women. Men are so angry with sexy women."
Fans have praised Emily as a ‘strong female role model’ who isn’t afraid to open up about her own experiences from a threesome with a married couple, one-night stands, celeb flings and faking orgasms.
New mum Emily, 34, may have settled down with partner Dr Alistair Garner and their four-month-old son Barney, but she is proud of her single years and even used her sex fails and dating disasters as material for her stage and TV comedy shows.
Nude awakening
Rather than being terrified of the full frontal nude scenes in Rivals for the game of naked tennis, body-confident Emily described the experience as ‘liberating’. In fact she said she was more concerned about the fact that she can’t play tennis than stripping off.
"We keep saying that the nudity and the sex scenes are a huge part of this but there's always a reason for them.
"We're not just getting our kit off for no reason. They're very integral to the storylines and characters.”
She and co-star Alex Hassell, who plays Rupert Campbell-Black instantly hit it off upon meeting, with Emily saying she felt "completely comfortable" with him.
The 7 ways Rivals star Emily Atack proves boobs rule and how she uses them as the ultimate power play
She also praised the rest of the Rivals team and the intimacy coordinators, describing the experience as “safe".
Speaking about filming the racy scene, she said: "We all knew each other really well by then. I think anybody that had nudity scenes and sex scenes, we all just really supported each other, so we loved talking about it. It was liberating and it was very safe.”
Celeb flings
Emily has been dating partner Alistair, a nuclear scientist, for a couple of years, although they have known each other since childhood.
But before friendship turned to romance, Emily had some some very high-profile rumoured hook-ups in the past, saying: “I like dating guys in my industry because they have a better understanding of what it’s like.”
These include none other than One Directioner Harry Styles who she dated in 2013, when she was 23 and he was 19.
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The I’m A Celeb runner up later said: “We had a nice little fling.
“We were never boyfriend and girlfriend. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever admitted to what it was, because I’ve just shrugged it off before.
"So, yeah, we had a short-lived thing that was just a bit of fun.
"Then we went off in our different directions.”
She was also reported to have had a ‘friends with benefits arrangement’ with McFly’s Dougie Poynter, as well as being linked to comedian Seann Walsh, now 34, who was later photographed kissing his married Strictly dance partner, Katya Jones.
The star was also linked to 37-year-old Big Brother star Ziggy Lichman - however, her team later denied the rumours, saying they were “friends but nothing more”.
Plenty of action
During her time working as a panellist on ITV's Celebrity Juice, Emily was hilariously open about her sexual encounters.
In the first episode of season 26, the stand-up comedian, who made her name as Charlotte ‘Big Jugs’ Hinchliffe in The Inbetweeners, didn’t hold back when presenter Keith Lemon quizzed her on how many times she had got jiggy.
Keith asked: "How many times have you had sex this week?", to which Emily replied: "Four and a thumb!" sending her co-stars and the audience into fits of laughter.
Threesome with married couple
Emily revealed live on stage - and in front of her parents - that she once had a threesome with a married couple - but later dumped them after they both fell for her.
She made the confession on her ITV2 series The Emily Atack Show, awkwardly telling the tale in front of her parents and her siblings.
She joked on stage: “Is it ok to tell my parents that I recently had a threesome with a married couple?", with mum Kate Robbins pretending to cover dad Keith’s ears.
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Emily said: “I met this guy in a pub. After a bit of flirting and texting, he announces that he’s married but it’s OK because he and his wife have an open relationship and she wants to meet me.
“Now for some people that would be a red flag, but I’m like a bull. Red flags drive me wild. It was all fun and fingering for a bit until they both started falling in love with me.”
While Emily might have been having fun, it seems the couple’s marriage wasn’t exactly a bed of roses.
She explained: “It got a little bit boring after a while because I had him texting me wanting to meet up, I had her texting me wanting to meet up, and I realised the only people they weren’t talking to was each other. I was caught in this messy love triangle which, by the way is the pet name for my vagina.
“I sat them down and said, “Guys, you have some issues you need to work out and s***ging me is not the answer. I think you just need to talk to each other. You think breaking up with one person is awkward, try breaking up with two.”
Faking orgasms
Despite being very upfront when it comes to sharing the ‘juicy’ details of her dalliances, there is one thing Emily struggles to be completely honest about.
Appearing on Shopping With Keith Lemon in 2019, Emily told the presenter that she often pretends that she's reached a climax so her partner doesn't feel bad.
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It’s a revelation that will no doubt send chills through her past conquests, as she confessed: "Do you know I spend 90 per cent of my sex life faking it?
"I do! I fake it all the time. Because... I don't want them to feel bad. I fake it all the time. God, I'm going to get some texts after this.”
Missing knickers
Emily also admitted to misplacing her underwear following her attendance at the Brit Awards. Emily made the raunchy comments during her stage tour Talk Thirty To Me in 2019.
Making the candid confession about her one night stand, the refreshingly honest star said: "I went home with a bloke - shock. I woke up, had no idea where I was. I s*****d him until about 10am. I left my knickers there. I’ll be seeing them on eBay.”
Talking dirty
Emily has made no secret of the fact she is keen to normalise women speaking confidently about their sex lives.
Speaking about her comedy show, she told The Mirror: “It will be quite alarming for people at first to see a blonde girl with boobs on stage talking about sex, but why not?”
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"Blokes talk like that all the time. I want to celebrate being women who aren’t afraid to express themselves.”
She says: “I’m saying we’re allowed to talk about that stuff, too. That’s the flag I’m flying at the moment.”
Naughty stage show
And Emily doesn’t just stop at talking about sex either. In 2020 she shocked fans when she simulated a sex act during her self-titled comedy stage show.
Discussing awkward one night stands with the audience she said: "I am always amazed at how blokes, they kind of manage to keep the self esteem on a night out.
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"You know, they leave the house with their freshly ironed shirts, Febreezed their b*****ks, hours later they're a roaring pack of p***ks and they're all wearing nothing but those green Borat thongs.
"But we all know that at least one of us is going to go home with one of those sexy little wrong-uns. You get back to his house, you get down to it. You know what it is like you've had a few so in your mind this is what's going on.”
While Beyoncé's sexy song Drunk In Love played, Emily then got raunchy grabbing her chest and gyrating her hips around before simulating a sex act.
Raunchy Rivals
By Rod McPhee, TV Editor
PACKED with nudity, swearing and sex scenes, Jilly Cooper’s Rivals may have started out as a racy novel — but I can confirm it has been reborn as an even steamier TV show.
Set in the Eighties, it unashamedly reflects the hedonism of the time — when making love, and money, were seen as the peak of ambition for the era’s jet set.
One of the sauciest moments of the cheeky eight-parter, which centres on the ruthless world of independent TV in 1986, features Emily Atack — better known as Charlotte in The Inbetweeners — playing naked tennis as saucy Sarah Stratton.
She’s married to the Deputy Prime Minister Paul Stratton, but is also having a good knockabout with central character, Tory MP Rupert Campbell-Black, played by Alex Hassell.
Though he’s naked too, when visitors turn up at his mansion, he doesn’t cover up like Sarah.
Instead, he stands there proudly holding his racket and demands to know: “Who the f* are you and why are you here?”
Just as in the original bonkbuster book, the tangled web of infighting, backstabbing and bedhopping is spun around dishy Rupert, who lives in the appropriately titled fictional Cotswolds county of Rutshire.
Legions of women want to seduce him, including three female characters Maud, Caitlin and Lizzie, who are all heard lusting after him.
But he is not the only figure stripping off in the cheeky series on Disney+ with an all-star cast.
Later in the show, we see another pin-up, Aidan Turner, showing off his buff torso, just as he did in period drama Poldark, the hit TV series that made him a star.
At 41, the Irish actor isn’t looking quite as lean or smooth as when he posed for the famous scything shot on the BBC show almost a decade ago, but he is guaranteed to get quite a few viewers reaching for their fans.
Particularly in another scene where Aidan, sporting a thick moustache, is seen starkers in the bath with smoke rising into the air as he seductively draws on a cigarette.
He plays TV host Declan O’Hara, who interviews the deputy PM and brings up his relationship with wife Sarah.
Starkly, O’Hara tells him: “She says you have the girth and stamina to compete with any championship racehorse.”
In its first episode alone, the show features eight naked men, six boob shots and seven bum flashes.
And, as such a storyline requires, 28 expletives litter the script.
Rivals certainly hits the ground running too.
Just seconds in, we’re confronted with Rupert and a female journalist called Beattie joining the mile-high club.
He has the woman, played by Annabel Scholey, pinned against the wall of a plane toilet, her red high heels jammed against a towel rail and her head banging on the mirror.
She has to use one hand to keep the door shut while a member of cabin crew bangs on it loudly, fully aware of what’s going on inside.
Even as Rupert finishes one sex session, he’s returning to his seat on the plane, winking at other women who look keen to eat him alive.
All this to the sound of Robert Palmer’s anthem, Addicted To Love.
The soundtrack is just one element of a show that revels in its Eighties timeframe as giant perms compete with even bigger shoulder pads, not to mention some seriously bling watches and sports cars.
Inbetweeners bed blunders
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We may have all had that awkward moment when someone has called us the wrong name, but for Emily this situation was even more mortifying when she was called her Inbetweener’s character’s name - during sex.
Emily explained: “I’ve been called Charlotte by three different dates.
“I’ve always forgiven it because they genuinely haven’t meant to do it, and I can see the absolute look of horror on their faces when they realise.
“I’ve laughed it off, although once I was sleeping with someone when they said it and it was like, ‘oh for f***s sake’. I still carried on though.”
English (US) ·