Meanwhile, Eric's first wife Eileen Pollock (Arbel Jones) comes to Emmerdale as she learns about Elizabeth's death, and threatens to expose Eric as a bigamist. Knowing this would cost him Elizabeth's estate, Eric agrees to pay Eileen in return for a divorce and her silence. Despite his reputation for dodgy business deals, including a dramatic heist in November 1994, Eric persuades Kathy Glover (Malandra Burrows) to go into business with him and turns her tea rooms into a wine bar at night. When he goes on holiday to the Philippines for Christmas 1996, Eric shocks everyone by returning with a young fiancée, Dee la Cruz (Claudia Malkovich). She and Eric get married, despite a backlash when Rachel Hughes (Glenda McKay) discovers that Dee is a "mail-order bride". Dee is surprisingly keen to make the marriage work, convincing Eric that they should put their energy into the business, but Dee later decides to go home, leaving Eric suicidal, but Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) helps Eric to recover from his heartbreak. Eric meets Gloria Weaver (Janice McKenzie), who pushes him to become mayor, and on their wedding night, she insists he spend the night with a councillor to secure her nomination. When the scandal breaks, thanks to Steph Forsythe (Lorraine Chase), Gloria twists it so she looks like the wronged wife and takes the job, despite the fact it is in Westminster. He throws her out, and later becomes convinced that she is dead, until a few months later, when he gets a video of her sipping a cocktail in the sun, revealing that she faked her death in order to clean out his bank account undetected.