After 32 years in the role of Irene Roberts, Lynne McGranger made her final appearance on Home and Away in August 2025. But despite the iconic character leaving Summer Bay, the actor has hinted that she could return.
Irene moved on from the coastal town after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, with the figure deciding to go travelling around the world. Naturally, this came with plenty of emotion, as she waved goodbye to several close friends.
While McGranger said a full-time return would be unlikely, she did state that she would be open to returning in a cameo role if the stars aligned. The storyline would, however, have to be true to the character’s departure.
“It would have to be a superlative storyline because I feel like it would break reality,” she told Chattr. “If this were a real scenario, then chances are Irene’s health would have declined quite a lot and quite quickly.”
“I wouldn’t want to diminish the storyline, but I wouldn’t want to make it so sad [that] there’s no hope,” she added, before suggesting that Irene could come back to Summer Bay to reconnect with friends as part of an “odd kind of catered tour”.
McGranger, who first played Irene in 1993, also suggested that the character could return in the form of a dream sequence, with the actor noting that it could be “fun” to have her as a friendly ghost-like figure.
“Where she comes to somebody in a dream to bring them news, or to bring them a warning or something like that. She suddenly becomes their, I don’t know, their good ghost. I would do that.”
“I think that would be a bit of fun because that would be more about the person whose dreams she was appearing in, rather than her. But it might be a nice way to bring her back into the show for a minute,” she added.
The actor, who recently appeared in reality series Shark!, had previously outlined the reasons for her departure in November, with the star saying that it had “been coming for a while”.
“I was exhausted, and everyone goes: ‘You look so well now’. That’s what giving up Home and Away does to you,” she quipped. “It’s hard work, it’s great fun… I was working 14-hour days, and I thought ‘I’m too old for this shit’.”
