Sarah Roberts has opened up like never before about the ‘huge closing of a chapter’.
Former Home and Away star Sarah Roberts “didn’t want to leave” the show “at all”, when producers called time on her character Willow Harris in 2021, she has revealed for the first time.
“I was told there was nowhere for my character to go,” the star, 41, shared in a candid chat with fellow Home and Away alumni Sam Frost in the November 5 episode of their Cracking On podcast.
Sarah was answering a fan question about the circumstances surrounding her departure from the hit Channel Seven drama, when she divulged more about her painful exit and the end of her marriage to fellow star James Stewart.
“At the time, I was pretty Debbie Downer about it. Honest truth was I didn’t want to go, but hindsight is a gift, and I’m not just saying that,” she said.
Sarah went on to explain that her role on Home and Away “wasn’t just a job for me” or a character that she played.
“A lot was tied up in those four years that I was on the show,” she shared.
“You know, I got married, I raised a stepdaughter who I called my own daughter. Home and Away did become my family.”
Sarah met James – who shares a daughter, Scout, 14, with ex Jessica Marais – on set in late 2017.
The co-stars married in July 2019, just three months before Sarah endured a family tragedy when her brother Karl died of brain cancer aged just 34.
With that devastating loss also coming during her time on Home and Away, Sarah admitted that “it really was like the end of an era and a huge closing of a chapter for me” when her time on-screen was done.
In the aftermath of her axing – and, later, her split from James – Sarah said she was left “grieving” the loss of many things: her job, her marriage, her brother, and the babies she miscarried along the way.
“All these things were kind of just dropping off, you know. So, I guess when I think about ‘did I want to leave Home and Away or did I want to stay?’ For me, that question is so loaded.
“Because when I think of the show, I think of everything that I went through during that period that I was on the show as well as behind the scenes.
“And no, a lot of the stuff that happened to me during that time, I didn’t want to happen.”
Sarah is now in a long-distance relationship with Vancouver-based cinematographer and artist Jake Iesu, while James has moved on with his Home and Away co-star Ada Nicodemou, with the pair engaged to be married.
Looking back, Sarah shared how she had “learnt a lot” after what she’d gone through.
She said that for a few months she was “upset” that she wasn’t on the show, but now looking back, she was “glad”.
“I get to challenge myself, I get to play new characters, work with different actors, I get to film like real stunt scenes and play complex characters that have these great arcs,” she revealed of her new life.
“Not saying that the characters on Home and Way didn’t – and I loved my time on the show – but I’m challenged and I’m growing,” she went on.
“I love to grow, and I get to do this podcast… and go after new opportunities all around the world. So you know, it all worked out for the best, I guess.”
