‘It’s recent and very unexpected but I’m happy’: Ada Nicodemou breaks silence on relationship with James Stewart
She made headlines after being linked to her Home And Away co-star James Stewart. Now, Ada Nicodemou sets the record straight about their ‘very unexpected’ real-life romance.
Stellar
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When she was a young student at the Johnny Young Talent School in Sydney, Ada Nicodemou loved being the centre of attention.
Exuberant and wide-eyed, the ardent Kylie Minogue fan would don elaborate costumes and put on shows for a captive audience of family members whenever the opportunity arose. The finishing touch? “I would embarrassingly sign off notes with, ‘Keep this. One day I will be famous!’” Nicodemou tells Stellar with an eye roll and a hearty laugh.
But that was in a pre-social media age for the actor, who became a breakout star in the seminal 1994 series Heartbreak High and has been a drawcard on Home And Away for the past 24 years.
Nowadays, apart from revelling in the occasional karaoke performance, Nicodemou is far less interested in having all eyes on her. “To this day, even when someone asks me, ‘What do you do for a job?’ I will say, ‘I’m just acting at the moment,’” the 47-year-old admits.
“What I miss about not being famous – and I hate using that word – is the people watching. I can’t do that here [in Australia] because you’re the one being watched.”
To relish the simple joy of sitting in a cafe and looking at passers-by is now a pastime Nicodemou finds easier when on holiday in Europe, where she can have a relatively anonymous getaway in France or her family’s homeland of Cyprus.
She has discovered that as long as there are no Australians or British tourists about, most people have not heard of Leah Patterson-Baker, the character she has played on Home And Away since 2000.
“In saying that, though, I was in Athens a couple of years ago and turned on the TV and an episode of Home And Away was on,” she recalls. “It was so strange.”
While the Aussie soap may have fans around the world, Nicodemou’s 11-year-old son, Johnas Xipolitas, is yet to become one of them.
“He’s seen ads on TV, but he’s never watched the show,” she reveals with a smile. “I never really wanted him to because I thought it would be too confusing.”
Rather, her son is happiest when he has his nose in a book or is kicking a soccer ball around in the backyard, activities Nicodemou has encouraged, along with strict rules around screen time and the decision not to get Johnas a phone until he reaches high school.
“But even then, he’s not having social media,” she insists firmly.
Nicodemou admits she is grateful that social media didn’t even exist when she landed her first acting job as rebellious teen Katerina Ioannou in Heartbreak High.
“Because, as you know, we all have our insecurities. I mean, I was just 16,” she explains. “I got to grow up without all this scrutiny. It was just normal – well, as normal as you can get being on TV. I got to practise my craft – learn it, actually, because I didn’t know what I was doing – and I also wasn’t really worried about how I looked.
“I never worried about my body. I never worried about the pimples on my face. I just concentrated on acting, and trying to get better at it.”
Despite Nicodemou’s best efforts to shield Johnas from social media and the ripple effects of her fame, an incident at his school forced mother and son to have a frank conversation. “They’ve all got iPads while they’re working in class, but they’re not meant to be online,” she says.
Nonetheless, another student entered her name in an internet search and learnt of a devastating personal incident she endured in 2014. “This stuff came up about how I’d had a stillbirth and lost a child [Nicodemou and ex-husband Chrys Xipolitas’ second son Harrison]; this kid brought it up with Johnas and he got really upset about it.”
As a result, Nicodemou has now devised some simple strategies for Johnas to draw on if he’s ever made to feel uncomfortable. “I said to him, ‘This is going to keep on happening, unfortunately.
And the older you get, when you go into high school, there are going to be kids that are going to read stuff about me, and they might even tease you about it,’” she explains. “So we have a line or two he can say straight away if it happens.”
Creating these protocols became even more important for Nicodemou when it emerged that she and her Home And Away co-star James Stewart – whose character, Justin Morgan, tied the knot with hers on screens in April – had become romantically involved. News of their fledgling relationship followed their former Home And Away co-star Sarah Roberts revealing to Stellar that same month that she and Stewart had divorced after five years of marriage.
Not long after, news broke that Nicodemou and her partner of eight years, businessman Adam Rigby, had split at the end of 2023.
Until now, Nicodemou hasn’t publicly addressed the headlines. But when asked about the situation, she says, “At 47, you know what you want and what you don’t want,” and confirms to Stellar, “Jimmy and I are together, yes. It’s only early days. It’s very recent and very unexpected. I’m super happy. It’s really lovely.”
What hasn’t been lovely is paparazzi trailing the couple as they run errands or spend time with their respective children.
While she understands the curiosity, Nicodemou is eager to protect the privacy of Johnas and Scout, the 12-year-old daughter Stewart shares with his former fiancée Jessica Marais.
“It’s annoying when you see the paps. I don’t want them to make any money out of this, because they’re gross,” she says. “I’m not going to stop living my life, but I don’t want my child photographed. I don’t want any child photographed. I think that’s really inappropriate.”
While Nicodemou and 48-year-old Stewart met on the set of short-lived soap Breakers 25 years ago, and have played one of Home And Away’s most popular couples for the past five years, she insists the chemistry between Leah and Justin as they exchanged vows was all acting, and not early evidence of a blossoming real-life romance.
“There weren’t genuine feelings then,” she says. “It was shot last year. But I think whenever you’re watching any TV couple, you’re always wondering if they really do have feelings…’”
Of their working relationship, Nicodemou tells Stellar, “We’ve always respected each other. We’ve known each other since Breakers. Jimmy is an amazing actor. I’ve loved working with him for five years and I think our scenes are great. I always like going to work – we push ourselves, and push each other, in a really good way.”
As one of the stalwarts of the Home And Away cast, Nicodemou happily offers advice to the show’s younger stars about dealing with the pressures and scrutiny that come with the high-profile gig. She’s also not afraid to give them a reality check.
“I’ll tell them, ‘Just because you’re on the cover of TV Week doesn’t mean you’re an amazing person or you’re a great actor,’” she explains. Instead she reminds them that sustained success comes from working hard, being kind and not letting fame get to their head. On a more practical note, she quips, “Because I am Greek, I tell them, ‘Save your money! And buy property.’”
Nicodemou has seen many actors come and go from Summer Bay, some of them – such as Chris Hemsworth, Isabel Lucas and her one-time TV husband Ryan Kwanten – going on to find fame in Hollywood. But she’s in no rush to hang up her diner apron.
“I’m staying on Home And Away until they push me out the door,” she says, laughing.
But that doesn’t mean she is not eager to try new things, in particular business opportunities that align with her Mediterranean upbringing. “Even if that just means I end up bringing olives over here – or halloumi,” she says with a chuckle.
“Who knows? But I really want to do something that draws on my heritage.”
She’s also about to release a sequel to her semi-autobiographical junior fiction novel Mia Megastar. Not only is the book an engaging read for kids, it serves as something of a starter kit for young actors, with Nicodemou sharing wisdom she picked up from her own experiences starting out. “I grew up in a shop and it was in a community where everyone knew each other,” she explains.
“The corner store was a really big deal. I was there before school and after school to help make deliveries. There was a real innocence back then, and I wanted to try to recreate that and inspire a sense of community again. And if for some reason you want to get into acting, this is how you do it.”
Recognising the dearth of locally made programming for children and tweens, Nicodemou can see her budding book franchise adapted into a television series. “I would play the mum,” she insists.
“Mia’s mum is always doing these practical jokes, so I like the cheekiness of that character. But Mia’s aunty is this glamorous woman who lives in Paris. So she could be good to play, too.”
Nicodemou is particularly keen to embrace her dark side, joking that she’s been angling for Home And Away writers to give Leah an evil twin or a personality-altering brain injury.
If that plan doesn’t come off, she’s keeping her fingers crossed that the stars will align for her to make a cameo in the upcoming third and final season of Netflix’s Heartbreak High reboot. “They’ve asked me twice and we just haven’t been able to make it work,” she says of offers to appear on the series.
“I would love to go back and play Katerina. I liked that [she] was just so naughty.”
When it aired on Network 10 and then the ABC in the late ’90s, Heartbreak High was considered groundbreaking television for its authentic and unvarnished depictions
of working-class Greek, Lebanese, Italian and South-East Asian teenagers.
That has stayed with Nicodemou, who continually advocates for accurate descriptions of under-represented communities on screen.
“When I first started on Home And Away, whenever Leah had a party they’d have Greek flags up as decorations,” she points out.
“I don’t know anyone who does that. So trying to change all that has been really interesting … Now I have young girls who look at me and go, ‘Oh yeah, I look like Ada,’ and that’s really important.”
Mia Megastar 2: The Juggling Act by Ada Nicodemou (Penguin, $14.99) is out Tuesday. Home And Away airs at 7pm Monday through Thursday on the Seven Network. For more from Stellar, click here.
Originally published as ‘It’s recent and very unexpected but I’m happy’: Ada Nicodemou breaks silence on relationship with James Stewart
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