Home and Away EXCLUSIVE: Sophie Dillman's bittersweet goodbye

After months of speculation, Sophie Dillman (Ziggy Astoni) and Patrick O’Connor (Dean Thompson) are set to leave Home and Away on Thursday. After Dean’s ex Amber (Maddy Jevic) broke the news that she was taking their son Jai (River Jarvis) to live in Queensland, Ziggy suggested that the pair leave Summer Bay.

Seven’s episode guide hints that Ziggy and Dean’s goodbye with Dean’s sister Mackenzie Booth (Emily Weir) will be heart-wrenching, especially after the Salt owner is preparing to lose her current love interest Gabe (Akos Armont) to cancer.

Sophie and Emily share a special bond, formed after their storylines caused the pair to spend a large amount of time on set together. The stars have affectionately referred to each other as ‘work wives’ on social media, and Sophie tells Yahoo Lifestyle that she will miss Emily “dearly”.

“I will obviously miss everyone on the show! Both cast and crew, every day it was work but [also] hanging out with some of your best mates,” she says. “Special mention to Em [Weir], I love her dearly.”

For the fans who have supported Sophie and Patrick’s on and offscreen relationship, the star says she wants to say a huge “thank you”.

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“I am so, so grateful to everyone who supported Diggy and our storylines. Thank you for being the best fans anyone could ever ask for,” she spills.

Fans are grateful that the couple will be departing the soap in a bittersweet way, farewelling their Summer Bay family before driving to Queensland. Since their characters are still alive, the door will always be open for the fan favourite couple to return.

As for what’s next, Sophie and Patrick have been busy travelling, and that’s high on their priority list right now. After being under contract and working for so long, they are hoping to make “more memories” abroad.

Sophie’s emotional confession: ‘Cried every day’

This comes after Sophie admitted that it was “really hard” to film her final scenes on the soap.

“I cried probably every day for the last month of work. It is such a big family,” she told Yahoo Lifestyle.

While she did find her final days filming full of emotion, she says she was so “lucky” to have spent the last six years on the show.

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“It was really, really hard. But also, it was really wonderful because you get to look at it from the outside and really appreciate all the incredible opportunities you’ve had.

“I’ve had such a great run with storylines and publicity opportunities and working with such incredible actors,” she adds.

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