She took him on camping trips, tidied his clothes and helped him with his homework, just like any loving parent. We know her as former Blue Heelers favourite Tasma Walton, glamorous partner of TV funnyman Rove McManus – but to Home And Away star David Jones-Roberts she’s also the tomboy stepmother who shared his life for 10 years, three of them as his guardian.

Made for motherhood
‘Tasma’s a brilliant mum,’ 18-year-old David says. ‘She’s really caring and very bright. She gave me advice on acting, and I always got good marks at school when she helped me, because she was top of her class.

‘We used to have play fights, and if I punched her she’d give me a good whack back. We often went to the beach together, although Tasma won’t go in the water if it’s too cold! It was lots of fun and I can’t say a bad word about her,’ David, who plays Summer Bay’s cheeky Xavier Austin, recalls fondly.

Tasma recently went public about her desire to start a family with Rove, whose adored wife Belinda Emmett died of cancer in November 2006. ‘More and more the idea of having a child appeals,’ Tasma, 35, has said. It’s a maternal instinct that comes as no surprise to David and his dad, Underbelly actor Danny Roberts, who was Tasma’s de facto for seven years and remains a loyal friend to her.

When soulmates split
Revealing their true relationship for the first time, Danny says: ‘Absolutely, I still love her. ‘It broke my heart when we separated. I think any split when you have loved each other and you’re soulmates is difficult… ‘Perhaps if we’d met when we were older, it would have been different. But “Tassie” was a lot younger than me and she wanted to travel. As good as it was, if you really love somebody you have to let them go.

‘She went off to the States and I guess that was when we both realised something was over, although we are still exceptionally close,’ he adds. ‘Tasma is family. Even after we separated, she stayed on at our house and looked after David for three years while I worked overseas. Her support and compassion have always been amazing.

‘I couldn’t speak more highly of Tasma as a mate, a surrogate mum and an ex-lover. Of course I still love her, but now it’s more like brother and sister. Anything other than that, it’s all over.’

Arms of the law
Sparks flew from the moment Danny and Tasma met on Blue Heelers in 1996. As bankrobber Craig Robinson, he assaulted – and kissed – her character Constable ‘Dash’ McKinley over a car bonnet. And their final embrace also took place on a film set, in Nevada last year as they played husband and wife in Dreamland, directed by Ivan Sen.

‘I guess there was a particular dynamic from the get-go,’ Danny, 43, says. The veteran of Aussie TV classics Cop Shop, The Sullivans  and Sons And Daughters explains: ‘We’re both from WA and looked at things in a similar way. We just connected. 'I fell in love with her, and fortunately she fell in love with me.’

One of the family
‘At the end of the shoot, we kind of looked at each other – she was actually seeing a boy at the time – and I said: “If anything happens, give me a call.” A week later, she did,’ Danny adds.

At the time, he was a single dad to daughter Alania, then eight, and David, six. And while playful, chocoholic, tomboy Tasma was only 22, she rapidly and readily became part of the clan.

‘It must have been a pretty big shock for her, but she’s a really cool girl who finds the funny side in anything,’ says Danny, who plays crooked detective Jim Egan in the second series of Underbelly.

When Tasma eventually left Blue Heelers in 1999, it was largely because she wanted to live full-time with Danny at the family home in Sydney’s eastern beachside suburb of Bronte. And there she remained, until just a few years ago.

Whatever it takes
At times, they struggled to make ends meet. David and Tasma would get up at the crack of dawn and earn a living delivering leaflets door to door, and she and Danny later ran a wheatgrass juice business together.

‘We were poor, but I remember Tasma’s generosity; she was always sending off $10 here and there to various charities,’ her former lover remembers. 'She’s a real worker. She never stopped.’

When she wasn’t working, talented Tasma would pass her time writing, riding a motorbike, playing piano – ‘She’s very good, she knows all the classics’ –  or painting abstract artworks.

‘I took her down to the art store and bought her some brushes,’ Danny recalls. 'She said: “I can’t do this”, but she was the first one to have an exhibition, in Perth, and every work sold like hot cakes. That’s what I love about her – she takes things up and runs with them!’

Romance with Rove
With every recollection, it’s obvious that Danny and David’s affection for Tasma is undimmed. Clearly she feels the same, because they were among the first people to know of her romance with Rove.

‘Tasma indicated that she’d fallen in love with this man, and then she told me who he was,’ Danny confides. ‘They’d been friends for years – it’s that WA vibe again – but when she fell for him and he fell for her, she was in total shock.

Loving wishes
‘It didn’t happen overnight, and neither of them saw it coming. It would have been very tough, after Belinda’s death, and they were frightened. They were such good friends they didn’t want to stuff it up.’

Danny can’t say if Tasma and Rove will marry: ‘We haven’t talked about it, but they are deeply in love and, wherever that takes them, from the Roberts clan we wish them all the very best.’

And Danny and his family is unanimous on one other topic: Tasma will make a wonderful mother if she ever has babies of her own. And they know. Because, after all, they’ve  seen her loving, caring ways. 

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