‘Mum did what she could’: Neighbours star Stefan Dennis on the women in his life

Stefan Dennis is an actor best known for playing Paul Robinson in Neighbours. The 64-year-old shares how he loved being a protective older brother, his first crush on his dancer teacher 10 years his senior, and how a pet’s death mended his relationship with his ex-wife.

“I met my wife while doing a pantomime in England and asked her to come to Australia.”Credit: Tina Smigielski

My maternal grandmother, Faye, let us get away with a lot as kids. She had two daughters – my mother Beverley and Aunty Joan, who was 12 years younger than Mum. Nan loved to sew clowns out of discarded fabric for charity. I nagged her to make me a clown for years. Then she gave me an ultimatum and said she’d sew one if I stopped sucking my thumb – which I did at the age of six.

My mother, Beverley, was also a wonderful craftswoman and a talented cook. She grew up in the high country of Victoria and would ski to school. She met my dad, Norman, when she was 19. They married in 1953 and divorced in 1965. Dad was a dashing young merchant navy officer who swept her off her feet. They had three sons in quick succession – my brother John in 1953, Chris in 1955 and then me.

Dad was away a lot for work and Mum raised us kids mostly on her own. She found it quite hard and very lonely. Dad was a gambler and didn’t really give her money. We ate dog food one night – we were brought up in abject poverty, but she did whatever she could to make ends meet and raise us well.

My parents put me and Chris into boarding school in Ballarat. John was killed by a drunk driver in 1966, when he was 12. It totally devastated Mum.

Mum moved to Queensland to work as a secretary for a short while. One day, she saw a guy hitchhiking and offered him a lift. They ended up dating. Reg became my stepfather and he and Mum were together for 55 years. They had my stepsister, Perri, in 1968. They both died in 2020, during COVID.

Acceptance and understanding are the keys. You can’t let things bother you to the point where you don’t like someone any more.

I always remember making breakfast for Perri when she was little. I’d go outside and fetch the wood I had chopped the night before and cosy up the house as it was freezing. I loved being a protective older brother.

I had a dance teacher called Sherri when I was 12. She was 22 and my first crush. She had a red MG sports car and a young husband. She also had a 12-year-old sister, Lexi, and she matched us up. I remember being so nervous when I asked Lexi on a date to the movies.

I met my first wife, Roz, at a nightclub above the bistro where I was doing a chef’s apprenticeship. She was 16 and I was 18. She was stunning.

Roz was my brother’s girlfriend, but he’d gone to Sydney and she wanted to find out where he was and whether they still had a relationship.

Roz and I dated for four years before we married in 1978. We were both very young – I think I proposed to her because I didn’t want to lose her. We both moved to Melbourne to chase our careers – she became a successful model.

We divorced in 1989. It was a very bitter split, but the weird thing is that it was the death of our dog, Tallulah, that brought us back to amicable terms. It put a stop to the lawyers and cemented our friendship until the day she died, two years ago.

I was in a relationship with actress Gayle Blakeney from 1990 to 1992.

I met my second wife, Gail Easdale, in 1991 while doing a pantomime in Southampton, England. In 1994, Gail was starring in Cats in London and about to finish up. I asked her to come to Australia. She was reluctant at first, but we’ve been together ever since.

Acceptance and understanding are the keys. You can’t let things bother you to the point where you don’t like someone any more. We have three children – Cameron, 21, Declan, 18, and Darci, 15. Darci wants to be in showbiz and a dancer, like her mum.

Neighbours premieres on September 18 at 4.30pm on 10 and 10 Play.

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