Veteran Australian actor Ray Meagher has been playing the iconic role of Alf Stewart on Home And Away for more than 30 years and now the star has revealed it may have hindered his chance to have children.
The man who plays the beloved Summer Bay character opened up about his decision not to have kids in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.
“When I was younger as a freelance actor, I wondered whether I’d be able to feed myself let alone anybody else,” he said.
“It’s a funny old profession, it’s very precarious, it’s a pretty dodgy old profession employment-wise.
However, he did get to experience fatherhood by playing stepfather to his wife Gilly’s daughter.
“I have a stepdaughter Rebecca (the daughter of his wife Gilly) who is in her early 40s and I talk to her at least once a week and see her for brekkie or brunch whenever the Home And Away schedule permits, which is maybe once a fortnight, and I love that.”
As previously reported, Meagher says he didn’t expect his role to be so long-standing on the hit TV show.
“The biggest surprise to me is that I’m still in it.”
Despite garnering loyal audiences, Meagher admitted he always considered the acting role to be short-lived: “I got a second job. You think you’re never going to get the first one, and then when that finishes you’re pretty sure you’re never going to work again.”
And in September last year, he told the same publication that he still very much appreciated playing Alf onscreenn.
“I’m still upright, I’ve still got a pulse, I still enjoy it more than 90 per cent of the time I am there and the new kids coming through keep it fresh.”
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This article originally appeared on WHO.
