Emmerdale’s Chas Dingle star Lucy Pargeter has recently celebrated her birthday, leaving fans floored at her age

Emmerdale’s Chas Dingle star Lucy Pargeter celebrated her birthday on Sunday 1 March.

The actress has been a staple on the ITV soap since 2002 and has been part of some of Emmerdale’s biggest storylines over the years.

Taking to Instagram on Sunday, Lucy celebrated her birthday as she shared several updates to her Story with one post showing a birthday dessert adorned with an edible Happy Birthday chocolate.

Soap fans were also quick to celebrate Lucy’s birthday as they took to a soap fan page to share their best wishes.

One person posted alongside a collection of pictures of Lucy over the years: “Lucy Pargeter is 49 today. Happy Birthday Lucy.”

Responding in the comments, Emmerdale fans couldn’t get over Lucy turning 49 as they praised her youthful looks.

One person said: “Happy birthday lucy 49 wow you look fab!”, a different account put: “Happy birthday beautiful lady have a great day” while another fan added: “Love Lucy!”

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It comes as Lucy has almost played Chas for 25 years on Emmerdale. Talking to OK! recently, the actress admitted she wants to stay on the ITV soap forever.

Lucy said: “I would like to play Chas for as long as I can. I always say, I would never choose to go anywhere, and even if they did try and boot me out or fire me, I probably would still turn up and they’d have to remove me.”

Meanwhile, Lucy opened up about her three daughters – Lola and twins Missy and Betsy, who she shares with former partner, Rudi Coleano.

The actress admitted: “My kids don’t watch Emmerdale… Lola, I think, did when she was little but my kids don’t watch Emmerdale.

“I did accidentally have it on in their bedroom when they were having a bath the other day and when the theme tune came on, they went: ‘Ah, mama! No, not that!'”