Emmerdale star thought she knew true value of art 'worth thousands' - but she had no idea

One Emmerdale star thought she was sitting on a "gold mine" when she purchased a set of original artworks for £75 apiece. Roxy Shahidi, who played Leyla Harding on the ITV soap for 16 years until her character was killed off earlier this year, decided to let Angus Ashworth of the Celebrity Yorkshire Auction House have a rummage through her collection.

The antiques expert and his team were out to find hidden gems and priceless heirlooms in the latest series, with Roxy joined by her former Emmerdale co-star Matthew Wolfenden as she took it all to auction. But she was in for a shock when she found out the true value of the paintings.

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, she explained of the moment that never made it to air: "I had these two amazing original pieces of artwork, I bought them as a gift ages ago for my husband. It was one of the first gifts I ever bought him when we were dating.

"I was like, 'Oh my God, he's going to love this'. And I liked the artist so much that I got two pictures - a big one for him and a little one for me. I was like, 'This is amazing'. Anyway, he was a little underwhelmed, it wasn't necessarily his favourite piece of artwork."

She added: "But I carried them with us from house to house, and a few years ago I looked the artist up, and wow, these were going for a couple of grand each now! I'd only bought them for like £75.

"So fast forward 10 years or whatever, and I'm doing this programme, and as much as I love these paintings they didn't really have a place in the house. They just kept moving from each house.

"So I thought, 'I'll auction these off and I'll probably end up with loads of money.'"

Tragically, the paintings received no bids - and Roxy ended up taking them back home with her.

"The research team said they couldn't find the artist," she explained. "I was like... 'You're joking?' I thought I was going to make an absolute mint.

"I'd been carrying them around for 18 years, thinking I was sat on a gold mine! But I've got them back now and I'm quite happy with that, to be honest. I clearly like them more than anyone else."

Roxy's episode of The Celebrity Yorkshire Auction House airs this Monday (November 10) on Really and Discovery+.