Former Neighbours star Kym Valentine talks break ups, family and #metoo as she make her theatre return

HAPPIER and healthier than ever after a breakup with a former footy star, former Neighbours favourite Kym Valentine is returning to the stage and has spoken of her #metoo experience in show business.

FORMER Neighbour star Kym Valentine has spoken of her #Metoo experience as she makes her theatre return a decade after wowing audiences as Baby in the original Australian production of Dirty Dancing.

Valentine is appearing in Unsolicited Male, a new work that explores the complicated dynamics of power in the workplace, for Q44 Theatre.

“Dealing with intimidation and bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace is something most of us, women and men, have experienced to varying degrees at one point or another,” Valentine said.

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Kym Valentine is return to the stage with the play Unsolicited Male in September 2018. Picture: Fiona Hamilton Photography/Supplied.

“It is something that I have experienced and it took a great toll on my mental health so I had to take a little bit of time to recover, but this is an opportunity to help women and men not to be afraid to speak out if they experience harassment of any sort in or out of the workplace.

“When I experienced it a long time ago, I did not feel safe to share what had happened to me, so hopefully projects like this, and just general conversation, will help other people feel safe to speak out and it might help to stop potential predators from acting out in the first place, because they know they will get called out.

Kym Valentine with Jackie Woodburne and Alan Fletcher who play her Neighbours family. Picture: Channel 10

“This (play) absolutely speaks to my #metoo experience.”

Valentine, who played the much loved character of Libby Kennedy in Neighbours for more than 14 years, split with her fiance, former Hawthorn player, Trent Croad earlier this year.

The pair have a son, Phoenix, 2. Valentine also has a daughter, Milana, 15.

“It is well and truly over,” she said of Croad.

“I am blissfully unattached and having a wonderful relationship with my kids and my career and I have never been happier or healthier.”

Valentine, 41, is part of the cast of the film Choir Girl which was shot in Melbourne last year. She is also teaching acting.

Kym Valentine and Josef Brown perform in Dirty Dancing in 2005.

“I have been a representation of a much larger product for most of my life so this really is the first time I have emerged as just me,” she said.

“I am a little bit nervous, but utterly excited about this play. It is the perfect project for me to come back to the stage with.”

Unsolicited Male opens at the Abbotsford Convent on September 20.

For bookings and further details: www.Q44.com.au

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