Home and Away star Kate Ritchie, who appeared in the show’s very first episode, looked totally unrecognisable as she shared a throwback snap to mark Australia’s Book Week
Kate Ritchie, an actress-turned-radio-host best remembered for playing Sally Fletcher in the enduring Australian soap opera Home and Away, celebrated Book Week with a cute throwback photo.
The actress, then nine years old, was costumed as Dame Slap from Enid Blyton’s The Faraway Tree series in the 1987 photograph, which was taken just one year before Katie joined the cast of Home and Away.
One of Kate’s fans wrote: “Omg! Fans quickly commented on the photo and contributed either their own or their children’s Book Week outfits. In 1989, I participated in my first book week as the far tree itself.
Another person wrote: “That book is a classic, I brought the whole series for my daughter,” while a third said: “That book is a classic, my 14-year-old daughter went as Mario, as in Mario karts for book week lol.”
Kate was a founding cast member of Home and Away. She left the show in 2008, however she later made a brief comeback in 2013 to mark the 25th anniversary of the program.
Kate kept acting after leaving the show, and her most recent appearance was in the 2023 miniseries The Claremont Murders.
Along with actor Shane Jacobson, singer Alesha Dixon, and comedian David Walliams, she returned to the Australia’s Got Talent judging panel in 2021.
She started a career in radio presenting in addition to acting, and she currently co-hosts the Australian radio program Fitzy & Wippa with Kate Ritchie.
Kate is devoted to raising her daughter Mae outside of the spotlight.
She first met and started dating rugby league player Stuart Webb in 2008. After a brief courtship, they became engaged in 2009 and married in 2010 at Tasmania’s lovely and historic Quamby Estate.
The couple welcomed their daughter Mae, who is now nine, in 2014, and for a time, it appeared that the three of them were content and at ease.
However, the couple’s relationship deteriorated, and in 2009 Stuart was issued an Apprehended Violence Order when police were summoned to their Sydney home for a domestic incident.
Typically, the orders are made to stop “stalking,” “harassment,” and to require that the offender not “assault or threaten” the victim.
The two were seen in 2020 dropping off Mae for her first day of school, suggesting that they had at least made some progress toward reconciliation and moving past their differences.
