Lynne McGranger says the moment she stood up to a person bullying her on Home and Away changed everything. After that, she said, it did not happen again.
The 73-year-old Gold Logie winner has now spoken publicly about what she describes as a difficult stretch during her years on the long-running soap, and why she never walked away because of it. She said she could not understand why she was targeted, but felt better about herself once she spoke up and was no longer, in her words, bullyable.
McGranger said the experience did more than bruise her confidence. She said it affected her mental health. But she also said leaving the show would have meant letting the person who targeted her win, and that was not something she was prepared to do. The bullying episode, which she discussed earlier this year on the Cracking On podcast, has added a sharper edge to the way many viewers now hear about her time in Summer Bay.
Her later decision to step away from Home and Away was for a different reason. McGranger said she eventually left so she could spend more time with her husband, Paul, and their daughter, Clancy. She has been with Paul for more than 40 years, and said the change has lifted the everyday pressure that came with cramming for lines each night.
That new pace, she said, has changed the shape of her days. McGranger said she and Paul now watch Tipping Point together and yell at the TV, and that Clancy and her partner can now swing around for dinner. She said her quality of life has improved enough that she can meet friends for dinner on half-price Thursday at the pub and say yes to a glass of prosecco.
McGranger’s account leaves one part unanswered: who exactly bullied her, and what became of that person after she spoke up. But on the part that mattered most to her, the result was clear. She said she confronted the bully, the behavior stopped, and she walked away from the experience with the feeling that she had taken back control.
