Home And Away's Penny McNamee Shares More On Upsetting Bullying Ordeal

Penny McNamee, star of Home and Away, has shared further details about her distressing experience with bullying.

In a recent emotional Instagram post, the actor, who portrayed Tori Morgan on the Australian soap opera, talked candidly about her experiences with bullying.

McNamee described how a gang of girls at her school “terribly bullied” her, causing her to lose her “sense of joy” and cry every day for six months.

Following a “overwhelming” response from parents and kids who had gone through similar things, McNamee has now written a piece for the Australian magazine Mamamia that goes into further depth about her early hardships.

“Three girls harassed me nonstop when I was in Year 9 at a private girls’ school. They had been my best buddies for the last two years. Then one day they made the decision to cut off communication with me,” she stated.

She initially believed it was a joke, but McNamee “vividly” remembered the girls giggling as they passed her. A “six-month campaign” to “isolate and humiliate” her instead began at that time.

She continued by saying that she felt “trapped and hopeless every single day” as a result of being shunned and locked out of conversations, as well as being muttered and made fun of when she entered a classroom.

As a child, I was inherently joyful and could always find something to giggle about. So you can imagine how worried my parents were when their happy 14-year-old daughter stopped smiling,” she added.

McNamee’s parents took the “difficult” decision to remove her from the school after months of conflict. Later on, the soap opera star enrolled in a coeducational school, which she calls “the greatest gift.”

“I found beautiful, inclusive, creative friends who are still my friends today,” McNamee said. “I decided to pursue a career in acting after landing the lead role in the school musical. I was able to start over when I changed schools, in a new setting where I could be anyone I wanted to be and no one knew me.”

“When I look back, I see a desperate child who had no control over her circumstances,” she said. Nor did the school have the authority to alter the circumstances.

However, I sobbed yesterday when I thanked my parents for standing up for me at the age of 14 and removing me from school. I will always be appreciative that they did.

After Tori Morgan married Christian Green in 2021, McNamee left Home and Away, where she had been a cast member since 2016. Before making an unexpected guest appearance in April, the actor made a comeback to the serial opera last year as a writer.