Rachel Hughes

Rachel Hughes was the daughter of Kate and David Hughes, and the older sister of Mark Hughes. Rachel married Chris Tate and they had a son, Joseph Tate, in 1995.
After divorcing Chris, she fell for teacher Graham Clark who turned out to be evil and during an argument, he pushed her to her death off a cliff. Before her death, Rachel worked out that Graham had killed his first wife.
==Storylines==
===1988-1997: Arrival in Beckindale, affairs and birth of Joe===
Rachel arrived in Beckindale in 1988 with her mother Kate and brother Mark after her parents divorced. Her mother began a feud with Joe Sugden in late 1988 after he shot and killed her dog because it was bothering his sheep. However, in early 1989, Joe and Kate fell in love and were married in April that year. Rachel was more accepting of her mother's new relationship than her brother Mark, who wanted their parents to reconcile.
Rachel began an affair with married man Pete Whiteley on her 18th birthday, in September 1989. He ended it when his wife, Lynn, became pregnant and they moved away from the village. Pete later returned and began seeing Rachel again until he was accidentally run over and killed by Kate, who was driving under the influence of alcohol. Lynn later got her revenge on Rachel by embarking on a relationship with Rachel's former stepfather, Joe and had a one night stand with Rachel's boyfriend Michael Feldmann.
On 30th December 1993, a plane exploded over Beckindale, killing Rachel's brother, Mark. The disaster also left Chris Tate in a wheelchair. Rachel began giving Chris swimming lessons and they embarked an affair. Chris's wife, Kathy 
saw them kissing on their third wedding anniversary and attacked Rachel, banging her head against a wall. In December 1994, Rachel discovered that she was two months pregnant with Chris's baby and in June 1995, she gave birth to their son, Joseph Mark Tate, on the same day her former stepfather Joe died, naming her son in his honour. Kathy was present when Rachel went into labour and stayed with her on the journey to the hospital as Chris was nowhere to be found. As a result, Kathy and Rachel agreed to put their differences behind them, with Kathy even becoming Joseph's godmother. On 7th December 1995, Rachel and Chris got married with Jack Sugden and his wife, Sarah, as witnesses. Chris wanted them to have another child and went for fertility treatment but Rachel was against the idea and secretly went on the pill. Chris and Rachel split up after Chris betrayed Rachel by stealing private information from her work file and Rachel was granted custody of Joseph. In July 1997, Rachel received news that Kate had died of a brain haemorrhage. Rachel then embarked on an affair with Jack Sugden after he comforted her and attended the funeral with her for support. This was her third affair with a married man. However, Jack had no intention of breaking up his marriage and returned to his wife, Sarah.
===1998-1999: Meeting Graham and death===
In 1998, Rachel, who had recently started working as a secretary at Hotton Comprehensive, met schoolteacher Graham Clark, who had recently moved to the area following his wife, Rebecca's, suicide. After a while, Graham moved into Mill Cottage with Rachel, and it didn't take long for his controlling behaviour to show. At first, things started off relatively minor; Graham alphabetised Rachel's CD collection, gave away her television and rearranged the furniture in her house. However, things became more sinister when Rachel caught Graham attempting to donate some of her clothes to charity and then invited hairdresser, Stella Jones, round to give Rachel a makeover. Although initially uncomfortable, Rachel agreed to a dramatic change of image but was later horrified when she discovered a photo of Graham's late-wife, who she now resembled. Rachel confronted Graham with the photo, but he claimed that he simply liked the hairstyle and had not made the connection to Rebecca. 
As had been the case in her relationship with Chris, having more children continued to be a bone of contention with Graham. Graham began pressuring Rachel to become a housewife and when she refused, he told Miss Strickland, his and Rachel's boss, that Rachel was unhappy at work and was considering leaving. Rachel was furious when she found out what Graham had done and lay into him over his attempts to control her life. Things were soon about to get a whole lot worse when Graham found a discarded bag of cannabis outside school and planted it in Rachel's pocket. Graham then organised an anti-drugs talk and invited Rachel along, thus allowing the sniffer dogs to find the planted bag of cannabis during a demonstration. Rachel was promptly arrested, leading to a suspension from work. 
With Rachel humiliated, Graham tried to convince her that a fresh start elsewhere would be beneficial, but Rachel was reluctant to leave and wanted to stay to protest her innocence. Behind Rachel's back, Graham began applying for jobs away from the village and it didn't take long for her to find out. With Graham now attempting to control every aspect of her life, Rachel told Eric Pollard that she was thinking of leaving Graham, and planned to break the news during a picnic. When Graham realised what Rachel was planning, he proposed, and Rachel felt unable to say no. However, when Graham began talking about getting married down south, Rachel finally snapped and reiterated that she had no intention of moving away. Things between the pair became more and more heated and, sensing the danger, Rachel tried to flee. Graham cornered Rachel on a clifftop, where she came to the horrifying realisation that he had killed his first wife and made it look like suicide. In a panic, Graham pushed Rachel off the cliff to her death. 
Graham returned to the village and set about covering his tracks, pretending that he and Rachel had become separated whilst racing each other back to the village. When Rachel still hadn't turned up by the following morning, a search party was initiated, with most of the village turning out to help. Graham watched as a horrified Jack found Rachel's body at the bottom of the cliff. Graham was secretly relieved when it was concluded that Rachel must have fallen.
===Legacy===
Eric Pollard, having known Rachel for years, didn't believe Graham's lies about Rachel falling off the cliff. He knew that Rachel was planning to leave Graham, so was suspicious that he had pushed her off the cliff. Eric raised his suspicions to Angie Reynolds (overheard by The Woolpack customers), but nobody believed him - except for Marlon Dingle. Realising they were on to him, Graham threatened Eric into backing off, then convinced new girlfriend Kathy Glover to leave the village with him. In 2000, Graham and Kathy were leaving the village. Marlon and Eric broke into Mill Cottage to try to find evidence but were caught by Angie. Eric was unsuccessful in trying to incriminate Graham. Meanwhile, an argument between Kathy and Graham, resulted in Graham grabbing the wheel, and the car getting stuck on the edge of a cliff. Kathy managed to escape but Graham fell down the cliff with the car, which exploded at the bottom, killing him instantly. Before his death, Graham had confessed to Kathy that he killed Rachel, which Kathy revealed.
Rachel's death had a profound impact on her son Joseph. Joseph lived with Chris until his death in 2003, at which point Chris' sister, Zoe, was awarded custody of Joseph and they emigrated to New Zealand in 2005 along with Zoe's daughter Jean. At some point between 2005 and 2017, Joseph took on the alias of Tom Waterhouse and started an internationally successful company. He returned to Emmerdale to exact revenge on Chris' final wife, Charity Dingle, and her family for Charity apparently murdering Chris.
In 2018 Joe said he was 4 years old when his mum Rachel died, and he had very few memories of her.
==Notes==
*In 1998/1999 Glenda McKay was diagnosed with Bells Palsy. This resulted in her being written out of the show, as it really was quite severe and because they did not know how long it would last, and it could not be written in that her character had contracted it. However, she was perscribed with steroids which seemed to work within two months.
==Quotes==
"Hi. And this is Rex" (First line, to Sandie Merrick when introducing her dog Rex)
"She didn't kill herself, did she? You killed her!" (Final lines to Graham Clark)
==See also==
*Full list of appearances
*Glenda McKay | Her experience of Bell's Palsy
Category:Emmerdale Farm characters
Category:Emmerdale characters
Category:1988 debuts
Category:1999 deaths
Category:Hughes family
Category:Tate family
Category:1995 marriages
Category:Woolpack employees
Category:Students
Category:Residents of Mill Cottage
Category:Residents of Home Farm
Category:Tate Haulage employees
Category:Receptionists
Category:1999 departures
Category:1971 births
Category:Residents of Emmerdale Farm
Category:Residents of Tenant House