Georgie Parker, who portrays Roo Stewart in the Austrilian soap Home and Away, is set to leave the soap for some time and will be off our screens from some point this month.
Talking to Yahoo Lifestyle, Georgie, 58, explained that she will be taking an extended break to go and star in Rhinestone Rex and Miss Monica.
“I’m lucky that with or any other TV productions I’ve been involved with, I’ve been very fortunate that I kind of put it out there — if it’s going to be long term, that I need time out for plays.”
The actress continued that she has it written into her contracts that she often needs time away from TV to go and perform in stage productions.
“Channel Seven has always been very generous with letting me do that, and ask for (time off).
“I just get it written into my contract.”
She told the publication that it’s easy for scriptwriters to explain her absences as the programme often focuses on the younger characters so it doesn’t disrupt any of her storylines.
Georgie’s absence is usually explained through Roo jetting off on holiday or going to visit her mother, Martha Stewart, in Merimbula.
Georgie’s brief exit follows the permanent one of two of the soap's stars, Sophie Dillman, who played Ziggy Astoni, and Patrick O’Connor, who played Dean Thompson.
They left the serial earlier this year and swapped Australia for the UK and now call here home.
The pair, who have known each other for nearly a decade after they met while studying acting, quit the show back in February.
Sophie called it “a pretty big decision,” Sophie explained on the Australian talk show The Morning Show.
“I guess after we kind of (decided to leave after) just over five years, we’re kind of entering a new stage, like dirty thirties.”
They joked about having a “gap year” in their 30s and taking time to travel as much as they could.
In March, former Home and Away actor Johnny Ruffo, who played Chrisptopher Harrington, gave an update on his terminal cancer diagnosis.
He posted a picture of himself smiling giving a thumbs up and wrote: "Back in my favourite chair,” and used the hashtags "I hate this chair" and "f*** cancer".
In August last year, he revealed the devastating news that his cancer was terminal.
Talking on The Project, he said that he worries for his partner, Tahnee Sims.
"You can only imagine how difficult it’s been for her. What plays in my head a lot is, I hate to say this, how hard it may be for her if something does happen to me.”
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