‘I’ve been really afraid of talking about this’: Sarah Roberts confirms split from Home and Away star James Stewart

In an emotional interview, Australian actor Sarah Roberts reveals why she and Home And Away star James Stewart have ended their marriage.

Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

There’s a spring in Sarah Roberts’ step that hasn’t been there for a long time, and it’s progress she cherishes as a sign of healing.

The 39-year-old actor and DJ has spent the past few months in transition, remembering all too well the moment when she lay in a foetal position on the floor, her heart breaking as her marriage to Home And Away star James Stewart came to an end.

“I’ve been really afraid of talking about this because of what I’ve felt to be the stigma and shame around it. But I just want to say that I am divorced,” Roberts tells Stellar.

While she and Stewart, 48, have been living separate lives for some time, their divorce only became official five weeks ago.

Sarah Roberts is red-y for her next chapter. Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

“What I’ve learnt from this journey of becoming a divorcee is that it’s so important to reach out to others who have experienced similar things and not hide in the shadows,” she reveals. “I hid for a very long time. There were times when I didn’t feel like I could see the light or a way out of these big, complex emotions that I was feeling. But I hope that by just being honest today, I’ll free myself, and potentially free a lot of other people, to be able to speak their truth.”

The pair had a fairytale romance. They met on the set of Home And Away in 2017 and were engaged a year later. In July 2019, they wed in an intimate ceremony in Ireland, alongside close friends and family.

Stewart’s now-11-year-old daughter, Scout (who he shares with ex-partner, actor Jessica Marais), was their flower girl and Roberts’ brother, Karl De Abrew, who sadly passed away from brain cancer three months later, walked her down the aisle. It was a happy day.

By all accounts, it was a happy marriage, too. But over time, things began to fall apart. “I’ll never speak on anyone else’s behalf, but my belief of marriage is that two people grow and learn from each other together,” Roberts says.

“Sometimes people just grow apart and that’s OK. I got to a point where I realised I couldn’t grow in the way I wanted to within this particular relationship.

“I’ve had to lean in to the art of letting go. I think I held on for a while because I

was afraid of feeling the sting of heartache and knowing the strength it would take to rebuild my life.

Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

“I felt in some insidious way it was my fault I couldn’t fix something that I desperately wanted to fix. But slowly, over time, things feel stagnant and colours lose their brightness, and the mismatch – which is what it is – starts to become evident. Then the day finally comes when it’s time to rip off the Band-Aid and face the hurt.

“The sorrow is f*cking explosive. And that’s because a major chapter of my life was closing.” Roberts pauses, her eyes filling with tears and her voice trembling. “A chapter

I loved reading … I loved that chapter.

“But just as a star explodes in grandeur, I think parting produces the energy to begin again. Still, it hurts. But I would never give up the hurt because I really believe that it’s the tax you pay for loving someone so much.”

Ever the pragmatist, Roberts also knows things could be far worse.

Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

“It’s not like I’ve lost a child to war or my house to a natural disaster. It’s just heartbreak. It feels awful and dank and it would be nice for it to never happen again, but I hope I do get my heart broken again – it means I’ve loved fully, and been vulnerable with someone else.

“For me, that’s success. I looked up the word for divorce when I was feeling like a failure – I thought it meant ‘to divide’, but it’s really the Latin word for ‘divert’.

“So perhaps you were going the wrong direction, and it could be God or the universe or whoever you believe in just redirecting you.”

While Roberts may be moving in a different direction from Stewart, her love for Scout remains steadfast.

“I didn’t only choose to marry a man, I also chose to marry his daughter,” she says with a smile. “When I first met her, she was worried that perhaps her dad would run out of love for her and love me more, but I taught her that love is infinite. Just because a promise with a man hasn’t worked out for whatever reason, that doesn’t negate the love I have for her.”

In 2020, Roberts revealed that she and Stewart had lost two babies to miscarriage, and while she will always think of Scout as a daughter, she’d like to have more children.

“I’ve frozen my eggs and having a child on my own is an option,” she says.

“I don’t shy away from adoption or foster care. I have such a big heart and so much love to give.” Friends have rallied around Roberts at this tough time, lifting her spirits with one of the oldest remedies there is: laughter.

“My girlfriends threw me a ‘freedom party’, which was just an opportunity to laugh and find the silver lining,” she says. “I’ve been in a lot of therapy. Hypnotherapy is great but screaming ‘F*ck’ at the top of your lungs for 10 seconds is a lot faster and cheaper!”

As well as working on her mind, Roberts has been focusing on her body, training with transformation coaching program SKWOD to build her strength and resilience.

Work has also provided a much-needed outlet. Since leaving Home And Away in 2021 – where she had originated the role of Willow Harris, the Seven Network drama’s first Sri Lankan bisexual character – she’s played the lead female character in 2022 comedy Wog Boys Forever and starred in the Stan mystery series Scrublands.

While she can’t reveal the show, Roberts has also landed a role on a popular, Logie award-winning Australian comedy series, plus she’s penning a script with TV writer Kala Ellis, and heading back into the studio to record new music.

On top of all this, Roberts is heading to Los Angeles to explore other opportunities.

“I’m going to meet with my management and potentially audition for things, and also catch up with a lot of friends and enjoy life,” she says. “Im turning 40 in December, so I feel like I’m at the ripe young age to grab life bv the balls and have a new lease on life.”

And a new lease on love, too. “Please, someone, romance me,” Roberts says with a laugh. “But marriage? I’m not so sure about marriage anymore. Perhaps there’s more healing to be done.

“I’d probably do it differently,” she adds. “There are a lot of old traditions that come with marriage – I’ve always wondered why the man stands at the end of the aisle and the woman has to walk towards him.

“Why can’t they meet in the middle? It takes two to tango, right? So I’m open to love. But if I get married again, we’ll tango in together.”

Read the full interview with Sarah Roberts and see the shoot inside Stellar tomorrow, via The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (Victoria), The Sunday Mail (Queensland) and Sunday Mail (SA).

For more from Stellar, listen to Something To Talk About below:

Originally published as ‘I’ve been really afraid of talking about this’: Sarah Roberts confirms split from Home and Away star James Stewart