Star quits iconic Aussie show Home And Away after 33 years

After more than three decades playing one of Summer Bay’s most beloved characters, this actress is saying goodbye to the show.

Longtime Home and Away actress Lynne McGranger will leave the show later this year after almost 33 years on-air, it’s been announced.

McGranger, who is the longest-serving female actor on the Seven soap, has been on screens since January 1993, playing Irene Roberts, a character who’s survived everything from alcoholism to breast cancer to a stint in prison and a plane crash.

“After almost 33 years in my dream role and working everyday with people who I love, respect and whom I now consider family, it’s bittersweet to be closing the chapter on what has been the best and longest gig of my life,” McGranger, 72, said in a statement released by Seven.

Lynne McGranger on Home and Away. Picture: Jeremy Greive

Irene’s been through a lot.

“I am forever grateful to the best production crew in the world and to our genius writers – whose doors are always open – for everything they have done for Irene over the past 33-odd years, and I am so proud of the storyline which will see Irene out of the Bay. Above all, a massive, heartfelt thank you to the fans for your continued love and support.”

Outside of Home And Away, McGranger was the runner-up in the 2014 season of Seven’s Dancing With The Stars, and released the memoir Acting Up: Me, Myself and Irene in 2021.

Irene circa 96.

With a young Chris Hemsworth.

In it, she dished on the time she found out she’d almost been axed from the show – a bombshell she discovered by accident during a 2019 live radio interview with broadcasters Amanda Keller and Brendan Jones.

That (almost) happened way back in 2002, but Irene has held on in Summer Bay for more than two more decades, and in 2023 she was ranked second in a TV Week poll of the Greatest Australian TV characters of all time.

McGranger will film her final scenes for the show at the end of March, but they won’t air until later in the year.

The actress plans to take a short break after finishing with the show, before she heads out on the road for an Australian tour of her comedy show, The Grandparents Club.

Originally published as Star quits iconic Aussie show Home And Away after 33 years