Home and Away's Sophie Dillman on Patrick's new look: 'Original'

Home and Away star Sophie Dillman (Ziggy Astoni) has revealed what she really thinks of her boyfriend’s brand-new look. Patrick O’Connor, who plays Dean Thompson on the show, debuted a striking new hairdo two weeks ago.

Following in the footsteps of Kawakawa-Fox Reo (Nikau Parata) and Lukas Radovich (Ryder Jackson), the star made a drastic change by bleaching his natural dark hair blonde.

While it seemed as if the actor was copying his co-stars, Sophie swears that he came up with the idea first.

“Paddy has talked about going blonde [for a while]. When I first met him in drama school, that would be almost 10 years ago, he had blonde hair,” she told Yahoo Lifestyle.

“He looked awesome. Like, it really suited him,” she recalled. “So he said, ‘I want to shave my head and I want to dye it blonde’. And he’s said that for so long.”

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Sophie said that after Lukas and Kawakawa decided to bleach their hair blonde, Patrick wasn’t thrilled by their decisions.

“Paddy was like, ‘They’re copying me…and I’m gonna look like I’m being the copier!’,” she laughs. “But he had the original idea.”

While fans have had a mixed reaction to Patrick’s polarising choice, Sophie tells us what she thinks of his new hair. “He loves it and I love it. I think it looks great,” she spills.

Sleuthing fans were devastated when Patrick debuted his new look, with many deducing that his new look hints he is leaving the show.

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“Tell me you’re leaving Home and Away without telling me,” one fan wrote on social media.

“You are one of the mainstays of Home and Away. Very sad if you guys are leaving,” a second commented.

“Will take me a little while to get used to your hair, I’m heartbroken you & Sophie are leaving Home and Away, will miss you guys,” a third chimed in.

“Kawakawa is travelling so I’m like, yeah he’s left too. I hate change haha,” another added.

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