Home and Away’s Sophie Dillman and Patrick O’Connor have confessed that their final story as fan favourites Ziggy Astoni and Dean Thompson has been one of their most exciting and challenging yet.
The real-life couple, who are sadly set to bid farewell to Home and Away on UK screens later this year, opened up to What To Watch about new mum Ziggy’s struggles with postnatal depression...
“We knew that the baby storyline was going to be our last big storyline because obviously having a baby is a whole process,” Sophie explained.
“It was exciting. It’s a really beautiful thing to be able to see all those ins and outs of pregnancy that are both good and bad.
“Pregnancy can be really hard and being new parents can be really hard and scary. I think it’s really important for the audience to see that.
“The ultimate is that we hopefully tell stories that make people feel less alone.”
Patrick added: “Dean and Ziggy, being the types of people that they are, you would hope that people watching would think ‘if they can do it, then we can do it’!”
After an exhausted and anxious Ziggy goes missing, Dean is left terrified. When the mechanic is found safe and well — and fast asleep in the back of a car at the garage — she finally has an honest conversation with Dean about her feelings.
“It was really hard to play and I thought a lot about it,” commented Sophie.
“Postnatal depression isn’t spoken about a lot in characters and in storylines so I did feel very honoured to do that.”
Patrick also welcomed the chance to start the conversation about how helpless new fathers can feel in that situation.
“Watching that kind of disconnect between a baby and a mum can be, I imagine, really jarring for a dad.
“There were lots of moments where Ziggy was like, ‘You try giving birth!’ and Dean was like, ‘Trust me, if I could, I would!’
“It’s a massive team effort. That’s the one thing Dean and Ziggy do a good job of is team effort. They always do everything side-by-side.”
Although the PND storyline was challenging for the couple, one thing they both loved was being around the babies. Sophie and Patrick have been together since 2019 but haven’t started a family yet.
“The babies were a lot of fun! I wasn’t really a baby person before but they're such tiny little things and by the end I couldn’t get enough of it!” Patrick revealed.
“Your characters would be having an argument and the baby would be giggling! You couldn’t continue the argument or you’d have to deal with it.
“It made the whole experience quite light because babies just aren’t angry things.”
Sophie agreed with Patrick that acting with the babies was a joy: “I loved it! It was so much fun! Even from a pure acting perspective. Babies have no concept of anything so you have to react to what they’re giving you, even if it’s happy, sad and anything in between! It really keeps you in the moment.”
After opening up to Dean, Ziggy realises that it's okay to admit that being a new mum is hard and she finally settles on a name for their little girl, Isabella ‘Izzy’ Astoni-Thompson.
With their little family looking to the future, Patrick wouldn’t reveal what happens next but he hinted there’s a happy ending on the horizon for Dean, Ziggy and baby Izzy:
“There’s a couple of moments and a bit of drama before they go, but they tackle it!”
Home and Away airs weekdays at 1:45 pm on Channel 5 and 6:00 pm on 5Star followed by a 'first look' episode on 5Star at 6:30 pm.
