Matthew Wolfenden says Emmerdale’s grooming story had to be "upsetting, disturbing and cringey to watch" to be realistic.
The 39-year-old actor’s alter-ego David Metcalfe has been left devastated in recent weeks after discovering his girlfriend Maya Stepney – played by Louisa Clein – has been grooming his son Jacob Gallagher (Joe-Warren Plant), and Matthew insists the hard-hitting plot needed to be "gross".
He said: "We couldn’t have played this out as being some sort of schoolboy sexual fantasy or titillation, it had to be gross it had to be upsetting, disturbing and cringey to watch.
"We have obviously seen paedophile storylines before with men and young girls and, because it was the other way around, people were grossed out by it – which was exactly what we wanted.
"We have had a lot of people say they can’t watch this storyline, that they are turning ‘Emmerdale’ off.
"But if we hadn’t had that reaction, we wouldn’t have done this storyline justice."
Matthew admits both he and Joe-Warren were "shattered" from playing out numerous "really emotional" scenes.
He added to the Daily Mirror newspaper: "As an actor, you pull from different parts of your life and you put yourself in that position, it’s the only way you can get yourself in that space
"Me and Joe-Warren were just shattered, it was really emotional."
As well as fans switching off the soap due to the hard-hitting scenes, Matthew and his eldest son Buster, nine, also found it tough.
The actor – who also has son Bowie, three, with his ‘Emmerdale’ co-star and wife Charley Webb (Debbie Dingle) – recently said: "We wanted to shock people. It was hard for me to watch.
"My eldest son is eight so it was a really hard watch."
Emmerdale’s Matthew Wolfenden: Grooming plot had to be ‘disturbing’
