After more than three decades serving heart, grit and unfiltered honesty in Summer Bay, Lynne McGranger has finally spoken in depth about the decision

that stunned loyal viewers: her choice to step away from the series and say goodbye to Irene Roberts. For many fans, Irene isn’t simply a character. She is comfort, history,

and emotional memory woven into the DNA of the show. Watching her leave felt like losing a member of the family. Now, McGranger is opening up about why

the time had come — and the truth behind the farewell is as human as it gets.

A goodbye that broke hearts

When Irene’s final UK scenes aired, the reaction was immediate and overwhelming. Viewers who had grown up with her — who had watched her battle alcoholism, open her home to lost souls, fall in and out of love, and become the Bay’s moral compass — found themselves reaching for tissues.

The storyline was devastatingly poetic. Faced with an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, Irene chose not to fade quietly into fear. Instead, she made the brave, defiant decision to travel, to seize what clarity and independence she had left, and to write her own final chapter.

It was classic Irene: vulnerable, stubborn, courageous.

For McGranger, the exit marked the end of an extraordinary 33-year run that began in 1991. Few actors in global soap history can claim such longevity in a single role. Even fewer can say they remained as adored at the end as they were at the beginning.

“I knew it was time”

Speaking candidly during a television interview, McGranger admitted the departure had not come from a sudden impulse. The thought had been circling for some time, quietly growing louder.

The reason? Exhaustion.

Producing a year-round serial drama is famously relentless. Early starts, late finishes, emotional intensity, physical stamina — it is a marathon that never quite ends. McGranger revealed she was regularly working punishing 14-hour days, and eventually she had to confront a truth many professionals reach but struggle to admit: she was tired.

There was humour in her voice, but also relief, when she spoke about how different life feels now. Friends tell her she looks younger, brighter, lighter. She jokes about the transformation, yet beneath it sits the reality of someone who has carried a heavy schedule for decades and finally put it down.

Still, stepping away from the routine did not mean stepping away from love.

Leaving colleagues, not family

If work rate pushed her toward the door, relationships almost kept her inside. McGranger has always described the cast and crew as an extended family — a phrase often used in television but rarely felt as deeply as it is in Summer Bay.

She remains especially close with long-time co-stars including Ray Meagher, whose Alf Stewart has stood shoulder to shoulder with Irene through countless storms, as well as Ada Nicodemou, Shane Withington, and Emily Symons.

They celebrated birthdays together. They supported one another through personal challenges. They grew older side by side under studio lights.

Walking away from that daily intimacy was, by her own admission, incredibly hard.

Yet McGranger is pragmatic. Friendships, she insists, do not vanish just because call sheets do. The people remain; only the routine changes.

Gratitude for a dream role

In reflections shared after filming wrapped, McGranger spoke with immense appreciation for the writers who entrusted her with some of the show’s most demanding material. Irene’s journey tackled addiction, grief, abuse, redemption, community responsibility — a catalogue of human experience that allowed an actor to stretch and deepen year after year.

And then there are the fans.

Generations of them.

Children who once watched with parents are now parents themselves, introducing new viewers to Irene’s kitchen-table wisdom. McGranger has met them in supermarkets, airports, theatre foyers — people who thank her for storylines that mirrored their own lives or helped them through dark chapters.

That connection, she says, is the gift she will carry forever.

Filming the final day

Behind the scenes, the last shoot was awash with emotion. Tears flowed freely between takes. Crew members who had worked with her for decades lined up for hugs. There was laughter too, because McGranger has never allowed sentimentality to drown joy.

She has described the experience as the ride of her life — a phrase that captures both adventure and completion. Not an ending born of bitterness, but one of fulfillment.

What happens after Summer Bay?

Retirement is not the word McGranger uses. Rest is closer.

For the first time in over 30 years, her calendar is not dictated months in advance. She can see friends, travel, spend time with family, and — as she beautifully puts it — breathe.

There may be stage projects, guest appearances, opportunities yet unseen. But the urgency has softened. After a career defined by constant output, the luxury of stillness is revolutionary.

A legacy that endures

Irene Roberts will continue on in memory, in reruns, in clips shared across social media, in the emotional architecture of the series itself. New characters will arrive, new dramas will erupt, but her imprint cannot be erased.

She represented flawed goodness. Tough love. Survival.

And perhaps most importantly, she represented change — proof that people can stumble, recover, and build lives of meaning.

As Lynne McGranger turns the page, she leaves behind not absence but inheritance: decades of storytelling that helped define what Home and Away is, and what it strives to be.

The Bay will roll on, as it always does.

But for many, there will forever be a seat at the table with Irene’s name on it.