The 31-year-old lost her granddad and her best friend within days of each other, before her boyfriend broke off their relationship.
Speaking to the Daily Star, Gemma said: “I was heartbroken when each thing happened.
“No one deserves that much rubbish in such a short space of time. I really had to take stock of everything. I don’t know how I held it together when things were falling apart around me.”
After losing her granddad Len, Gemma decided not to take time off from Emmerdale, in which she plays Rachel Breckle.
But then days later her best friend Camille was tragically killed in a car crash.
Gemma said: “It was just devastating news. She was only 24 – she had the world at her feet.”
But things only got worse for Gemma when her boyfriend Andy Barnes split up with her out of the blue.
“It didn’t seem real someone could have so much bad luck. Andy ended it just after we’d had an amazing weekend with my family. The relationship finishing wasn’t nice or fair,” she continued.
But despite being pushed the edge by the bad events, Gemma insisted she refused to crumble, adding: “Sometimes you have to take what life throws at you and turn it into a positive.”