Lady Tara Thornfield

Tara Reynolds (née Cockburn, previously Lady Oakwell and Lady Thornfield) was famous for "stirring up trouble" amongst the villagers. 
==Biography==
===Marriages to Alex and Michael and affair with Biff===
Tara arrived in the village in July 1997 as the fiancee of Lord Alex Oakwell, however, Tara was oblivious to the fact that he had been having an affair with Kim Tate. In an attempt to stop the wedding, Kim invited Tara out horse riding with her and encouraged her to perform a risky jump over a fence. Tara suffered a nasty fall, resulting in a broken wrist and concussion, but, much to Kim's annoyance, the wedding went ahead. However, the marriage didn't last, and Alex ended up fleeing the country when he crashed his car, killing his passenger, Linda Fowler. With Alex on the run, Tara took much of the heat for the crime, with Linda's Father, Ned, even releasing her horses and setting fire to her stables. Alex returned to the village some months later and, although initially furious with him for abandoning her, Tara decided to leave with him. However, Alex was not interested in Tara and, after stealing her diamonds, left without her. 
When Kim and her husband, Steve Marchant, were declared bankrupt, Kim's former stepson, Chris, approached Tara with a view to her purchasing their shares in Home Farm for him. Tara agreed to think about it but, on the day of the sale, stunned everyone by announcing that she was going to purchase the shares for herself, making her the majority shareholder. Meanwhile, after crashing her car whilst driving under the influence of alcohol, Tara received a driving ban and promptly employed Linda's widower, Biff Fowler as her driver. 
It wasn't long before Tara and Biff began an affair, something which they kept secret from the rest of the village. Some weeks later, Tara was devastated when news reached her that her Father had died and it was at the funeral that her relationship with Biff became public knowledge. However, any hopes of a future together were dashed, as Tara was hit with death duties and forced to pay off her Father's debts. Needing to get money together quickly and following advice from legal counsellor, Laura Johnstone, Tara was forced to sell off some of Home Farm's assets, which unfortunately included the homes of several villagers. Tara wrote to the affected villagers to inform them of their impending evictions and Laura gave the letters to an oblivious Biff to deliver. Tara was furious when she discovered what Laura had done, especially as Biff's close friends, Betty Eagleton and Seth Armstrong were among those receiving eviction notices. The evictions lead to the end of Tara and Biff's relationship and Tara found herself struggling, not only with her split from Biff, but with the guilt of making people homeless.
At her lowest point, Tara began spending time with Lord Michael Thornfield, an old friend of her Father's, and he soon proposed to her. Tara was left torn - she still had feelings for Biff and did not want to be seen as only marrying Michael for his wealth, especially when Laura pointed out that his money could be enough to stave off the evictions. Despite these worries, Tara accepted Michael's proposal. The night before the wedding, Tara slept with Biff and suggested, what with Michael's work frequently taking him away for weeks at a time, that she and Biff could continue their affair. However, Biff realised that Tara still planned to go through with the wedding and told her that he was not willing to play second best. Some months later, Tara announced, via Laura, her intention to sell both her share in the stud business and Home Farm, much to the anger of the Tate's. 
===Return and relationship with Sean===
In June 2000, Tara returned to the area, and threw a huge party at Oakwell Hall for many of the village residents. However, Tara wasn't being entirely honest about her reasons for returning and later told Laura that she had separated from Michael, citing that he'd been abusive towards her. Not only that, but he was now going back on the divorce settlement, leaving Tara in a financially vulnerable position. With Tara having expressed an interest in investing in Tate Haulage, Laura was initially angry that Tara had mislead her about her financial situation, but she eventually came round and agreed to take on the case in exchange for 10% of the settlement. 
In order to give Tara something to fall back on, she and Laura also cooked up a plot to convince the Tate's to invest in a stud farm, operating out of the stables at Home Farm, but the plans hit a snag when Zoe said no. Laura was eventually able to convince Zoe that the stud farm was a good idea, and the launch went ahead, but Chris was still interested in getting Tara to invest in Tate Haulage. With Tara refusing to discuss anything other than the Stud Farm, Chris began to suspect that her financial situation may not be as secure as she'd lead him to believe. Meanwhile, with Michael still proving obstructive with the divorce settlement, Laura decided to visit him in Monaco, whilst Tara continued to avoid coming up with any money for the stud farm. However, with Chris and Zoe pressing her for payment, Tara prepared to come clean, just as Laura returned with news that she'd managed to secure Tara a £5 million divorce settlement. 
As Tara settled back into life in the village, she met Tate Haulage employee, Sean Reynolds. Although Sean was often left exasperated by Tara's extravagance, his annoyance soon turned to passion and the pair began an affair. However, Sean felt guilty about deceiving his wife, Angie, and insisted that things went no further but Tara refused to take no for an answer. Over the weeks that followed, Tara enjoyed toying with Sean, ordering a security check on Oakwell Hall and insisting that Angie was the police officer sent out, turning up at his teenage son, Marc's, birthday party and sending the entire Reynolds family Christmas presents. Despite Sean's annoyance, he couldn't keep away from Tara and the affair continued. 
Tara and Sean's affair was eventually revealed when Tara secretly began giving Marc driving lessons, and told the teenager that she was having an affair with a married man. Marc mentioned this news to Sean in passing and a furious Sean stormed up to Home Farm to confront Tara. However, Marc followed his Father and ended up overhearing a heated discussion between Sean and Tara about their affair. The revelation of his Father's affair came as a double blow for Marc, who had grown to believe that Tara had feelings for him. When Angie found out what Tara had been up to, she confronted her in The Woolpack and slapped her, resulting in Tara reporting her for assault. However, when the police arrived, the assembled punters denied all knowledge of the incident and the matter was swiftly dropped. Around the same time, the Stud Farm's future was plunged into doubt when vet, Adam Forrester accidentally injected the pregnant mare of an important client with the wrong medication, resulting the mare aborting. Despite Tara's best efforts to keep a lid on the incident, word got out and clients began removing their horses from the Stud. With Tara's reputation in the gutter, she decided to leave the village for an extended holiday, leaving Chris and Zoe to sort out the Stud Farm. 
Tara returned to the village a couple of months later, but her and Sean decided not to pursue a relationship for the sake of his children. The pair were eventually drawn back together some months later, however, Sean was soon distracted when Marc and Ollie found themselves in trouble with the police over the death of their headteacher Miss Strickland. Although Tara offered to pay for legal representation for Sean's children, she soon began to feel pushed out as he began spending more and more time with his family. When Marc was eventually sent to prison for his part in the accident, Sean decided that there was nothing keeping him in the village and, having accepted a haulage job which would base him in Cheshire, made plans to leave. Tara was put out when she heard of Sean's plans and also made plans to leave the village. When Sean heard about Tara's plans, he suggested that she move with him to Cheshire, but she insisted that it was not the life she wanted. However, Tara quickly had a change of heart and left the village with Sean for a new life in Cheshire. 
Tara returned to the village one last time for Len Reynolds's funeral, along with Marc Reynolds. Viewers have since learned she married Sean.
==See also==
*Full list of appearances
Category:Emmerdale characters
Category:1974 births
Category:1997 debuts
Category:2007 departures
Category:1997 marriages
Category:1998 marriages
Category:Reynolds family
Category:Businesswomen
Category:2002 marriages
Category:Home Farm employees
Category:Residents of Oakwell Hall
Category:Oakwell family
Category:Owners of Home Farm