A throwback video has emerged that has left fans wondering if Kate Ritchie suffered as a result of her long-running role in Home and Away.
The much-loved radio star, 46, began her media career in 1988 at the tender age of eight on soap opera Seven playing the character Sally.
A compilation clip posted to the ‘Home and Away The Early Years’ Instagram page shows Kate’s character in scripted scenes being belittled and neglected.
Many of the scenes show a pre-teen Sally being sent away while the characters try to have “adult conversations.”
A young in-character Sally can be heard whining, “No one tells me anything,” throughout the clip as one character after another belittles her.
One scene even shows the tiny character sent outside to play outside in the dark.
A throwback video has emerged that has left fans wondering if Kate Ritchie suffered as a result of her long-running role in Home and Away.
A compilation clip posted to the ‘Home and Away The Early Years’ Instagram page shows Kate’s character in scripted scenes being belittled and neglected. Pictured: a young Kate Ritchie in Home and Away
Fans were quick to post comments on the shared post.
‘Holy shit, this is pretty horrible. Poor Sally,” said one fan.
“I hope there was a counselor on set,” another commented.
‘Oh, but how did Kate feel playing Sally? Seeing that was really sad,’ remade one.
Another fan speculated: ‘This must have traumatized the real actress in later life!’
Kate left Home and Away after twenty years and its last episode aired in 2008.
Commenting 33 years after her departure from the series, Kate told Woman’s Day in 2021 that leaving the show was difficult:
“It really felt like the loss of a big part of who I was, it took me a long time to adjust to that…
A young in-character Sally can be heard whining, “No one tells me anything” throughout the clip as one character after another belittles her.
Fans felt a lot of sympathy for Kate’s character Sally, with one asking if there was a counselor on set.
In the same interview, the Nova radio star confessed that she used therapy to cope with her departure from the show.
“That’s what I needed at that moment.”
It comes after Kate has been trying to get her life back on track following her drink-driving charge in August 2022.
Last year, she revealed her decision to seek professional help after going over the limit when police pulled her over for a random breath test.
He said that after struggling with several personal challenges in 2022, he decided it was time to seek help.
‘It took a long time to arrive. I sought professional help, the help I needed. Sometimes enough is enough,’ he said at the time.
‘Life has presented me with challenges in recent years, but I am not alone in that. “I was lucky to be able to take the time.”
Kate returned a reading of 0.06, slightly above the legal limit, when police stopped her for a random breath test in her van in Pagewood at 2:45 pm on August 22, 2022.
She was fined $600, suspended from driving for three months and apologized on Instagram.
“I recently took a random breath test,” he wrote.
‘Although it was low level, the test came back positive.
‘I made a bad decision and there is no doubt that I understand the seriousness of my actions. Very sorry.’
In October 2022, Kate announced that she would be stepping away from her radio show, before it was revealed that she was seeking treatment at an exclusive rehab clinic in Sydney.
Kate left Home and Away after twenty years and its last episode aired in 2008.
In December of that year, the Daily Mail Australia broke the news that Kate had checked into an exclusive private mental health facility in Sydney to help her treat her alcohol dependency.
She said in a statement at the time that the past year had been challenging and stressful, leading to an “unhealthy dependence on alcohol.”
Kate was back in the news last month after another traffic incident.
He was allegedly behind the wheel of his black 2023 BMW X5 xDrive40i when the incident unfolded in Dudley Street, Randwick, on Wednesday, November 6.
According to eyewitness accounts, his BMW collided with a parked Mitsubishi Pajero, pushing it forcefully off the road and into a parked Kia.
She exchanged details with the driver before quickly leaving to pick up her nine-year-old daughter Mae, who she shares with her ex-husband Stuart Webb.
No roadside sobriety test was carried out and NSW Police did not attend the scene.
There is no suggestion that Kate was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident.
It appears the drivers will handle the matter privately and Ritchie may be hit with a hefty repair bill.
Kate is a loving mother to her nine-year-old daughter Mae, whom she shares with her ex-husband Stuart Webb.
She married the former NRL star at Quamby Estate in Tasmania in 2010, after a year-long engagement, but the couple split in 2020.