Kim Tate (previously Taylor, Marchant and Foster) is a fictional character from the British soap opera Emmerdale, played by Claire King.

Writers created a relationship between Kim and Steve Marchant (Paul Opacic), a subsequent marriage and more money making scams.

King decided to leave Emmerdale and Kim departed during the episode broadcast on 19 January 1999, when she escaped the village in a helicopter with James and £190,000 of Chris' money.

Later storylines saw her pursue a relationship and later marriage with her employee Will Taylor (Dean Andrews), her feuds with daughter-in-law Andrea Tate (Anna Nightingale), stepduaghter Dawn Taylor (Olivia Bromley), her son Jamie (now played by Alexander Lincoln), Jamie's ex-lover Gabby Thomas (Rosie Bentham) and Will's ex-wife Rose Jackson (Christine Tremarco).

Kim initially got on well with her stepchildren Chris (Peter Amory) and Zoe (Leah Bracknell), but her marriage to Frank soon wore her down.

They soon come under threat from Chris' wife, Kathy (Malandra Burrows), when she discovers a hotel bill that Neil accidentally dropped at Home Farm.

The secret remains safe until Christmas Day 1992, when Frank finds an expensive watch he'd believed to be his present being worn by Neil.

This time Kim is much more ruthless about keeping the affair secret and tramples Kathy's brother Nick with her horse when he threatened to expose her.

When Frank overhears Dave and Biff Fowler (Stuart Wade) discussing the situation, he has another heart attack and ends up in hospital.

He then has time to think and decided to pretend not to know about the affair while hiring a private detective to follow Kim and Dave before confronting his wife with the evidence.

He also hires scheming Tina Dingle as a secretary in Home Farm who uses to wind Kim up by wearing her dresses that Frank had bought.

They plan to run away together, but a fire breaks out at Home Farm and Dave dies in hospital on Boxing Day 1996 of injuries sustained while rescuing baby James.

Kim watches him die, saying "You're a dinosaur Frank – and you know what happened to them", checks he is dead with her compact mirror, then coolly redid her make-up.

She later starts seeing Frank's business partner, Steve Marchant (Paul Opacic), who also had a share in Home Farm, and they soon marry in May 1998.

Once Steve has gone, Kim manages to talk to Kathy when she is alone and reveals the truth about her hit-and-run incident – all the while hiding her involvement behind the plan of stealing horse.

Kim is released from prison in October 2018 and greeted by Graham Foster (Andrew Scarborough) at the gate, who hands her the keys to Home Farm.

Kim finds out that her former step-grandson, Joe (Ned Porteous), has run into financial trouble on the day of his wedding to Debbie Dingle (Charley Webb).

While waiting, Kim flags down Debbie's father and Faith's son, Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) - when he comes across her.

Cain goes looking for him and after hearing his phone ring, underneath the soil, he fears that Kim has killed him and begins to dig - only to be caught be the police.

Cain chases after Graham and fights him in a field, until his wife Moira Dingle (Natalie J. Robb) intervenes to break up the brawl.

Some time later, Jamie gives Kim a choice, he will stay at Home Farm but only if she invites Lisa to dinner to make up for being so horrible to her.

Jamie notices Kim arguing with the woman, who he recognises as his wife, Andrea (Anna Nightingale) with his daughter Millie (Willow Bell) in the back of the car.

In January, Graham lies to Kim about breaking up with Rhona but when she realises this, she orders Al to kill him, agreeing to pay off his £60,000 debt if he does it.

In February, Pierce Harris (Jonathan Wrather), Rhona's rapist ex-husband and Graham's murderer, deliberately cycles out in front of Kim, causing her to run him over.

Posing as a lawyer named Ollie, Kim falls for Pierce's lies and agrees to represent Jamie in his custody battle with Andrea over Millie.

[6] Speaking about Kim's departure in 1999, series producer Kieran Roberts felt that it would have been wrong to kill off the character as she was the "ultimate survivor".

[10][2][3] According to The Independent, Kim's arrival was a turning point for the show: "Suddenly, it was more Dynasty than dales, and Tate threw herself into the role with gusto, cheating on her husband with a younger man, plotting to kill him to inherit his business, etc, etc.

The red-top tabloids, used to a diet of EastEnders and Corrie storylines fed to them by the publicists, suddenly woke up to the existence of Emmerdale – it helped when King began a relationship with another actor, who played her stepson.

"[1] Her original departure from the show on 19 January 1999 was watched by nearly 15 million viewers[13] and won Best Exit at the 1999 British Soap Awards.

"[19] In anticipation of her return in 2018, Metro wrote: "viewers fondly remember soap's biggest superbitch, the woman who killed off her ex husband by merely showing up – and applied her lipstick as he drew his last breaths.