Pearl Ladderbanks
| Pearl Ladderbanks | |||||||||||||
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| Emmerdale character | |||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Meg Johnson | ||||||||||||
| Duration | 2003–2020 | ||||||||||||
| First appearance | Episode 3500 30 July 2003 | ||||||||||||
| Last appearance | Episode 8770 30 March 2020 | ||||||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Keith Richardson | ||||||||||||
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Pearl Ladderbanks (also Hartbourne) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Emmerdale, played by Meg Johnson. She first appeared on the show in episode 3500 on 30 July 2003. Pearl's storylines included defending her rapist son Frank Bernard Hartbourne (Rob Parry), being trapped in a fire during the Sugden house explosion, developing a gambling addiction, committing embezzlement in order to feed her gambling and faking Alzheimer's disease to prevent her addiction from being revealed.
Johnson took an extended break from her role as Pearl during 2019, with Pearl last appearing on 18 July 2019. Pearl was off-screen until 13 January 2020, when it was revealed on-screen that she had been away from the village on a caravan holiday. The character made a handful of guest appearances until the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom caused the character to stop appearing due to Johnson's age. Her last appearance aired on 30 March 2020.
In the episode broadcast on 1 April 2024 it was announced that Pearl had died off-screen with Rhona Goskirk receiving a letter from Pearl’s grandson Owen informing her of her death.