Home and Away star Ada Nicodemou opens up about life and new relationship with James Stewart

A child about to leave primary school, a successful series of children’s books published, a relationship breakdown and one very high-profile romance with her Home and Away co-star James Stewart: it’s fair to say Ada Nicodemou has seen life change seismically since she was last in Perth for Telethon, back in 2022.

She’s returning West this year for the event — and it’s giving her pause to think about all that has transpired since she was last on our shores.

It’s been . . . a lot.

“Um, yeah!” she says, in what is surely a colossal understatement.

“I’m always busy: busy doing a million and one things, but look, I’m actually really happy, and in a really good place at the moment.

“My son (Leah shares 12-year-old Jonas with her ex, Chris Xipolitas) is starting high school next year, which is daunting.

“Today he needed to find (a photo of himself at age six) for his yearbook, so I’ve been thinking back a lot — there’s so much changing.

“It’s going to be a whirlwind end to the year.”

A whirlwind indeed.

But Nicodemou is clearly someone who thrives in the eye of the storm — she’s been in it for the better part of three decades, after all.

Nicodemou made her first TV appearance, playing feisty teen Katerina Ioannou on the original nineties iteration of Heartbreak High, back in 1994.

Still in high school and juggling exams and schoolwork, that was supposed to be a guest role lasting a few months — they kept her on.

“I thought I’d just do this 12 week (guest role) on Heartbreak High and go to university, and that would be the end of it,” she told STM the last time we chatted in 2022.

“I never even really wanted to be an actor, I sort of just fell into it, and kept going.”

Roles followed in the short-lived soap Breakers, a stint on Police Rescue and an unexpected guest role in the first Matrix film.

Then in 2000, she packed her bags for Summer Bay — and from that point on, there’s been one constant: her Home and Away alter ego, Leah Patterson.

Nicodemou has played her much-loved character for 24 years; their lives are intimately intertwined.

“Leah has become a part of my life as well,” she explains.

“It’s weird — it is like I have got these two families.”

Her two families spectacularly collided earlier this year, when news of Nicodemou’s fledgling relationship with Stewart — who plays her husband on the show — hit front pages across the country.

It was a big deal, with excitement reaching fever pitch when the couple attended their first TV Week Logie Awards arm in arm in June.

Her Home and Away family rallied, wrapping the new couple in a protective cone of silence — no one shared stories with the paper, no one leaked details to press; respect was the order of the day.

And it’s hardly surprising: Nicodemou and Stewart have a reputation as being well-liked and well-respected members of the key cast, who clearly had their back.

Co-stars like Ray Meagher (Alf Stewart) and Lynne McGranger (who plays Irene) have been Nicodemou’s neighbours and close friends at the Bay for the entirety of her time on the show.

“I have known Ray (Meagher, who plays Alf Stewart) and Lynne (McGranger, who stars as Irene) for 23 years — they knew me when I was a child,” Nicodemou explains.

“And now I have a child!

“They came to Jonas’ christening, and we are all so intertwined in each other’s lives.”

She cherishes the interconnectedness.

Like her own life, Leah’s has never stayed stationary for too long — Nicodemou loves that about her character.

It keeps things interesting.

“It means I am not bored at all,” she explains.

“There are always such different storylines, so even though I’m playing the same character, I’m never playing the same thing — every week I feel like there’s something different.

“I’ve got a storyline I am doing at the moment that I was laughing about, going, ‘Oh my god! Who would have thought that Leah would have been saying these words?’

“If I can still be surprised, 23 years down the track, then it’s great.”

Nicodemou says she would like to remain with the soap for as long as they will have her.

“They are going to have to wheel me out of this place!” she laughs.

“And I am being honest — I love it.”

The show’s producers, themselves a similar age, know the challenges of making the show work around family commitments — they’ve been flexible, allowing time off when it’s needed, allowing cast members to dip in and out of other creative pursuits.

“It’s been really great,” Nicodemou, 47, says.

“And it keeps us all stimulated on the show.

“It’s a great lifestyle, and I have made it work.

“I have a week off every school holidays, so I spend it with Jonas, and if there’s other stuff — like, we have his high school orientations coming up — they are always so accommodating.

“The producers are female and our executive producers are female — they’re mums — so they get it.

“And I’m lucky — I’m a single mum, but I have a lot of support, so I am really grateful for that.”

That support has meant Nicodemou has had time to juggle her mum-life with her set-life.

She’s also had time to pursue other creative pursuits — later this month the third in a children’s book series she wrote, Mia Megastar, hits bookshops.

Creatively, professionally and personally, she’s in something of a sweet spot.

But much like Leah’s life, Nicodemou’s doesn’t stand still — there are changes ahead.

“I have had to let go a little bit the last couple of months,” she says of watching her son transition from primary school boy to soon-to-be-teen high schooler.

“My mum is overseas, so (Jonas) has to get himself ready for school and walk himself there — but he’s been great.

“I’m actually the one that has to have a little talk with myself and be like, ‘Ada — it’s fine. He’s 12. He’s got this.’”

Between days on set, school runs, catch-ups and that endless child-ferrying, Nicodemou has had no time to pause, but she’ll carve out time in October for a lightning-fast visit to Telethon, an event she holds close to her heart.

“I’ve been to a lot over the years” she says.

“I’ve been at Seven for 23 years, and I’ve not done every one of them, but I have done a lot, and each of them has been so lovely and very special.”

When Jonas was just six weeks old, he was rushed to the children’s hospital in Sydney — it’s a time seared into Nicodemou’s memory, and one she reflects upon whenever she does hospital visits for Telethon.

“When Jonas had his first vaccination at six weeks, he went into anaphylaxis,” she tells STM.

“He was taken via ambulance to the children’s hospital, and he spent four days there.

“Every day, awful things were said to us (about whether he would be OK), and it was just terrible,” she says of the touch-and-go time.

“I only had four days of it, but it was hell . . . and (I’ve always thought since) that healthcare workers, they are just angels walking on this earth — it takes a special kind of person who can do what they do.”

Nicodemou, who at this stage will attend the fundraising event solo, hopes she can help bring a smile to people’s faces when she hits town for Telethon — it’s the least she can do, she says.

“I think for the parents as well,” she says.

“The kids are always so amazing, and always so up and so positive — I just find it incredible. They are such fighters — but you look at the parents, and you think, ‘I can’t even.’

“It’s just so hard.”

If she can help share the love, just a bit, it’s reason enough to take time out of her busy life.

Leah — and by default Ada — is the nation’s mum, after all, and she’s here to share the love.

“That’s such a nice way of putting it,” she says.

“And look, even if the kids don’t know who I am, maybe the parents will?

“I’m looking forward to bringing a smile.”

Telethon will be held on October 19 and 20, broadcast live on Channel 7 and 7plus.