Editing Emma Samms (section)

==Personal life==
{{BLP sources section|date=May 2009}}
Samms twice declined offers to appear in ''[[Playboy]]'', once during her run on ''General Hospital'' and the second during ''Dynasty''. Instead, she appeared on the cover of the February 1988 issue of ''[[Inside Sports]]'' in a bikini, as well as additional swimsuit shots inside the magazine.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://assets.espn.go.com/page2/s/merron/030221.html |title=SI undressed |publisher=ESPN Page 2 |date=20 May 2003 |access-date=14 May 2017}}</ref>

In 1983, Samms and her cousin, film producer [[Peter Samuelson]], co-founded the [[Starlight Children's Foundation]], an organization that helps seriously ill children and their families cope with their pain, fear and isolation through entertainment, education and family activities. The organization was their response to losing Samms's brother and Samuelson's cousin, Jamie, who died at age nine from [[aplastic anemia]].

In 1984 Samms and [[Tristan Rogers]] went public with their romance,<ref name="1997 Encyc"/> but the relationship ended around the time she left ''General Hospital'' the next year. Engaged to [[Marvin Hamlisch]] in the early 1980s, Samms has been married four times: to Bansi Nagji (1991–92), and to Tim Dillon (1994–95). She married John Holloway (1996-2003), and the couple had two children. In 2021, Samms married journalist and TV presenter [[Simon McCoy]].<ref>{{cite web| url = https://twitter.com/EmmaSamms1/status/1447211266804695042| title = Twitter}}</ref>

Samms was appointed [[Member of the Order of the British Empire]] (MBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to seriously and terminally ill children.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=61608 |supp=y |page=B23|date=11 June 2016}}</ref>

In April 2018, Samms said that she had been dealing with [[Bell's palsy]], an illness that causes temporary facial paralysis. A month later, she sent an update on Twitter, writing "paralysis on my face is 90% better".

She tested positive for [[COVID-19]] during the global pandemic in March 2020 and has developed long-term complications from her initial infection.<ref>https://expressdigest.com/british-dynasty-star-emma-samms-59-tells-of-six-month-long-covid-hell-2/ {{dead link|date=October 2021}}</ref>