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Home and Away's Sophie Dillman and Patrick O'Connor quit the show
The real-life couple are saying goodbye to Summer Bay.
After months of speculation, Sophie Dillman and Patrick O’Connor have finally confirmed that they will be leaving Home and Away.
The real-life couple, who play Ziggy Astoni and Dean Thompson on the show, both took to Instagram on Monday evening to reveal that they will soon be saying goodbye to the Channel Seven soap opera.
“The sun is setting on Ziggy and Dean’s time in the bay!” Sophie captioned a photo of herself and Patrick standing in front of a sunset.
“I’m still in denial about it all… stay tuned for their final few weeks!”
Patrick also shared a snap of himself and Sophie on the beach alongside the caption: “Our time in the bay is coming to a close, stay tuned next couple weeks.”
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Fans quickly took to the comments to applaud the pair and send their well-wishes, with many saying that Summer Bay won’t be the same without them.
“Absolutely gutted you guys are leaving,” one person wrote. “Literally my favourite couple on the bay. Please don’t go.”
“You’re both going to leave a big hole in the bay. Forever appreciate everything you guys have bought to the show!” another added, while a third said, “Can’t wait to see what comes next”.
“Having both of you in the show was incredible we are going to miss you both so much but good luck in the future for the both of you,” someone else shared.
'Bittersweet and emotional'
Speaking to TV Week on Monday, Sophie said it was “time to start a new chapter” after they did everything possible with their characters.
“It's bittersweet and emotional, but we realise how lucky we are to have had such an incredible run,” she shared.
Dean added that the series has been “a huge commitment and a massive chunk of my life” since he started at 24 years old.
“I felt I changed into six different people in the time we were there,” he said. “There's a lot of growth both as an actor and a person. It's a great place to work, but I was ready [to move on].”
'Focus on me'
It’s been speculated for months that Sophie and Patrick will be leaving Home and Away after a fan saw the pair filming a goodbye scene on location earlier this year. In the scene, the couple were loading their vehicle before departing the bay.
Since then, fans haven’t spotted the on and off-screen couple filming at Palm Beach. Instead, Sophie and Patrick have been travelling over the last few months and they’ve both made dramatic changes to their hair.
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Long-time cast member Lynne McGranger also shared a cast photo on Instagram in December with Sophie and Patrick notably absent which added further speculation.
Sophie also spoke with Yahoo Lifestyle in December about her 2023 resolutions and shared that her main goal was “to find joy”.
“I think next year I want to really focus on being happy, doing things that I love and doing things for myself,” she told us.
“After working so hard for so many years, I want to focus on me for a bit.”
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