Shocking on-air moment Home And Away star Lynne McGranger found out she was nearly axed

Actress Lynne McGranger is best known for her role as Irene Roberts on Home and Away. Photo / Getty Images

Lynne McGranger has been one of the most recognisable faces on Australian TV for almost 30 years, thanks to her long-running role as the much-loved Irene Roberts on Home And Away.

But in this exclusive extract from her new memoir Acting Up: Me Myself And Irene (out November 2), McGranger recalls 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 …

Actress Lynne McGranger, best known for her role as Irene Roberts on Home and Away, found out some shocking news during a radio interview. Photo / Getty Images

I feel incredibly blessed to say that I've blissfully gone to work every day feeling confident, proud and, all in all, secure in my job. That is until 2019 when I was being interviewed by radio stars Jonesy and Amanda on WSFM. As far as interviews go, I always love talking to these guys because they're clever, funny and incredibly decent human beings. After decades of answering questions like, "How does it feel to be the longest-running female cast member?" and "Do you still love being on the show?" I knew this little chat could be had in my sleep. I think I might have been simultaneously cooking brekky while I chatted.

Completely out of the blue, Jonesy chimed in with, "It's amazing to think that they nearly wrote you out in 2002."

"I'm sorry, what?" (If I'd had a drink in my mouth, I'm confident that droplets would have been flying through the air.)

"Yeah, it's on Wikipedia."

Apparently, there were plans to write Irene out because the producers felt like she didn't have anywhere to go now that her kids were gone. By a stroke of luck, a new script producer by the name of Coral Drouyn had arrived and was horrified. She pleaded with the producers to let me stay and said she had big plans for Irene. While you'd think I would have picked up on this at work through green room chatter, this was literally the first I had heard of it.

As soon as the interview was over, I immediately found Paul [McWaters, Lynne's partner of 36 years] and told him that a woman named Coral had saved my bacon back in 2002! To be honest, I think I'm still digesting this news because of how much of a shock it was. I know "job security" and "actor" aren't two things you typically associate with each other, but my Home And Away "family" is just that – a group of people who have enriched my life tremendously, taught me so many valuable lessons, given me some of my most cherished memories and yielded some truly wonderful friendships.

• Lynne McGranger's memoir Acting Up: Me, Myself & Irene is published November 2 by Echo Publishing.