Neighbours star Olympia Valance discovers the greatest contraception ever

OLYMPIA Valance’s character Paige on Neighbours is pregnant to the priest Father Jack. Then she finds out it is a breech birth.

Neighbours star Olympia Valance, the half-sister of Holly Valance. Picture: Jesper Hede

THERE should be little doubt about Olympia Valance’s commitment to her craft.

Playing pregnant Paige Smith on Neighbours, the 24-year-old goes into labour on the Channel 10 soap this week — and in true Ramsay Street style, it’s no ordinary delivery, with the single mother finding herself alone in an isolated farming shed, just as her water breaks.

Valance tells News Corp Australia, it was no ordinary day of filming either, with the young actor pushing through a 12-hour “labour.”

“I was pushing all day long, from six in the morning, to six at night. There was one point, I was pushing so hard I almost fainted,” she says.

Warned her unborn was in the breach position, there was added drama for both mother and child — before Dr Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher) and her baby daddy, priest Father Jack (Andrew Morley) can rush to her side.

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Paige (Olympia Valance) is dramatically rescued by Father Jack (Andrew Morley) and Dr Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher). Picture: Ten Network

After researching the complications associated with a breech birth, what’s not in danger, Valance confirms, is any chance she’ll be rushing out to get pregnant in real life.

“I reckon I watched about three hours of home [breech] birth videos and oh, my god ... it was the greatest contraception ever, 100 per cent,” she laughs.

Besides being “completely frightened out of wanting to have a baby,” Valance has her sights set firmly on an international career — presenting a different dilemma for the young star.

Now in her fourth year on the soap series, the Logie-nominated actor admits she’s edging closer to cutting the cord and leaving her TV family for new work opportunities in either London or Los Angeles.

Olympia Valance says playing expectant mum Paige has turned her off having her own baby. Picture: Ten Network

Her endorsement deal with Gossard lingerie takes her to the UK capital regularly, allowing time too for her to visit with half-sister and former Neighbours star, Holly, who lives between London and Los Angeles with her entrepreneur husband Nick Candy and their toddler daughter, Luca.

Signed to the same US management agency, Roar, as the Hemsworth brothers, there are also doors set to open for her there.

And yet, Valance — loyal to where she got her acting start — is torn about leaving her Neighbours and FremantleMedia family behind.

“A lot of people don’t get this opportunity, so I feel very lucky and very blessed to have been given this chance. To go and throw it away for the unknown ... it’s going to be really hard because I’ve loved the cast, I love the crew.”

Her departure is already causing anxiety on the close-knit set, Valance admits.

“The make-up artist said to me this morning that Eve Morley [who plays Sonia Rebecchi] had said something like, ‘it’s going to be emotional to see Olympia go ...’ and I started tearing up, that’s how emotional I get. If I do go, it will be one of the hardest decisions I’ll ever have to make,” she says.

She plans to use the show’s end of year production break this year to spend a month in Los Angeles, trying her luck during pilot season. But she’s pleaded with producers not to kill her character off.

“Even if I decide not to sign on for another season, I want to come back and forth for cameos. It would never be the end of Paige.”

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