Matthew King is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Emmerdale, played by Matt Healy.

During his time on the show, Matthew had relationships with several women and was engaged to Anna De Souza (Emma Davies) when he died.

In January 2004, The Sun announced that Emmerdale would bring in "three new single 'hunks'" who are all brothers in an attempt to increase the sex appeal of the serial.

However, he was also shown to be one to stick his neck out for his family and was even hinted to have had police officer DCI Grace Barraclough (Glynis Barber) run over and killed in order to prevent his brother Carl (Tom Lister) being taken down for the murder of their father.

He is arguably best remembered for his affair with his brother Jimmy's (Nick Miles) wife Sadie (Patsy Kensit), which helped to show that the character would go to any lengths to get his own way.

In a storyline that saw Matthew revert to his old ruthless self after he withheld Anna's father Donald De Souza's (Michael Jayston) pills would later lead to the character's demise and comeuppance for his past cunning actions.

Series producer Anita Turner said of Healy's decision to quit "Matthew King will leave Emmerdale in an explosive storyline.

Having moved the body and covered up Carl's involvement, Matthew conned Paul's widow, Siobhan (Abigail Fisher), into selling him the cottage at a knockdown price.

At the funeral of one of Tom's closest friends, Matthew bedded the deceased's daughter before using squeeze Sian to make his next conquest Louise Appleton (Emily Symons) jealous.

Matthew was heartbroken when he realised that Sadie didn't care that a small child had lost his mother and told her that their relationship was over and he never wanted to see her again.

When Tom was murdered on Christmas Day 2006, Matthew suspected his stepmother Rosemary Sinclair (Linda Thorson) of committing the crime.

Perdita, however, struggled with her feelings for him as she wanted to make her marriage work, especially after she discovered Katie Sugden (Sammy Winward), now her surrogate, was pregnant.

However, this only lasted three months as Matthew discovered Perdita had attacked Katie so she almost miscarried and Grayson told him that she knew about the attempt to frame him.

In a rare show of kindness, "for old time's sake", Matthew gave Perdita a cheque for £20,000, saying Katie could pay him back once she was out of hospital.

Just before Perdita left, they had clearly called a truce and it was noted onscreen that the pair briefly kept in touch when Perdy sent Matthew a letter with a picture of her and the baby.

In early 2008, Carl felt increasingly isolated in the King business and family and went to work for their rival, Donald De Souza (Michael Jayston).

Matthew began taking an increasingly cold approach to business, chasing away Zak Dingle (Steve Halliwell), Rodney Blackstock (Patrick Mower) and Jasmine Thomas (Jenna-Louise Coleman) for various reasons.

He blackmailed Carl's ex, Lexi Nicholls (Sally Oliver), to get a job at De Souza Enterprises and pass information to him which she did, reluctantly.

The love of Matthew's life turned out to be fiery businesswoman, Anna De Souza (Emma Davies), Donald's daughter.

Matthew and Anna first met after Carl played a silly trick, leaving her stranded in a company truck on a narrow country lane.

Meanwhile, King & Sons was in financial trouble and, taking pity on his brothers, Carl told one of De Souza Enterprise's richest clients about Matthew and Jimmy.

Unaware, Donald offered Anna's services as a consultant for a business trip to Warsaw, wanting her to use it to gain inside knowledge.

A few weeks later, Donald confronted Matthew, offering to save King & Sons from financial ruin, providing he ended things with Anna.

Matthew announced the engagement to his brothers and sister while Anna told Donald and made preparations to move into Home Farm.

A party was planned at Home Farm to celebrate Anna and Matthew's engagement, a successful deal with Polek Haulage, and an end to the family's financial worries.

A furious Donald crashed the party and caused trouble by announcing that Anna was only marrying Matthew to destroy the family from the inside.

When the lawyers told Carl about Donald's involvement, he believed that Anna would make secret deal to profit from the family's bankruptcy and later suspect Matthew of conspiring with her, as the pair were set to get married together.

Matthew retaliated by recalling how their father would still be alive if it hadn't been for Carl, blaming their younger brother for everything that has happened to them since Tom's death.

Matthew would constantly be referenced or mentioned during the subsequent events of the show, including at 2012 when Carl was killed by Cameron Murray (Dominic Power) after the truth about Tom's murder was finally revealed.

[5] The character's final scenes were rapped by Ofcom who felt Emmerdale broke watershed guidelines by showing his death in a graphic manner.