Home and Away's Sophie Dillman admits she's 'scared' by milestone

Home and Away’s Sophie Dillman has admitted that it’s ‘really strange’ to play a pregnant character with her real-life partner Patrick O’Connor.

The pair play fan-favourite couple Ziggy Astoni and Dean Thompson on the soap, and their current storyline revolves around Ziggy’s pregnancy.

In an exclusive chat with Yahoo Lifestyle, Sophie touched on how ‘scary’ it has been to go through the motions of pregnancy with Patrick.

“It is really strange to talk about pregnancy and babies with your partner that is your partner in real life, and on set,” she spills.

While the couple have discussed having children, that’s something they want to do in the future — not right now.

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She admits that it has been confronting going through huge pregnancy milestones with her real-life partner by her side.

“All of a sudden, all these feelings and thoughts come into it like oh my god, what happens if we actually have a baby? Is this how it works? Will you be scared, I’m scared! Am I meant to be this sick?” she explains.

Her character has had a bumpy road with her pregnancy so far, which has involved some fights with Dean and a rush to hospital after inhaling some toxic solvents at Summer Bay Auto.

Sophie tells us that Ziggy was on a completely different path before the shock pregnancy, saying that she was ‘petrified’ at first. However, the onscreen couple seems to have moved past any doubts and is looking forward to welcoming their bundle of joy.

The star says that while their storyline is ‘great’ with ‘very common pregnancy symptoms’, it has been ‘weird’ trying to play a pregnant character.

“I don’t think you think about [pregnancy symptoms] properly until you’ve actually experienced them. But I’m fake experiencing them, so I now have to think about it,” she laughs.

“It’s really weird, but it’s been really fun. Really, really fun playing a pregnant woman with food cravings and nausea and mood swings.”

Sophie’s baby plans

This comes after the star opened up about her chronic condition endometriosis.

According to City Fertility nurse manager Jam Rodriguez, the disease can ‘decrease a chance of spontaneous conception’.

While she wants to have kids in the future, she isn’t putting any pressure on herself at this stage.

“My decision on thinking about children and my fertility is that I’m not going to worry about it until I’m ready, or [am] properly thinking about having a child — which isn’t yet,” she said.

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“[I don’t want to] spend all those years stressing about [getting pregnant], and then maybe I can’t even have a baby,” she admitted.

The actress also said that she’s been open with all her previous partners, and Patrick, about her potential fertility struggles. It’s not an easy conversation to have, but she wants to help make it easier for others.

“It can be really scary for some people to have those conversations, but there’s so many options for fertility now, and fertility treatments, IVF, adoption, and it’s not as scary when you talk about it more, you know,” Sophie added.

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