Former Neighbours star Natalie Bassingthwaighte has opened up about the challenges that come with co-parenting alongside her ex-husband Cameron McGlinchey.
The actor, who played Izzy Hoyland on the Australian soap, shares two children with McGlinchey, who she split from in 2023 after 12 years of marriage.
During a candid new interview with Stellar, Bassingthwaighte opened up about life after divorce and shared that spending Christmas without her children for the first time was "harder" than she thought it would be.
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"It was the hardest Christmas I've ever experienced," she said. "My therapist is like, 'you know what? It's OK. Tell the kids it's the month of Christmas and you’ll celebrate on different days'.
"So I kept going, 'It's the month'. Then one day I'd be hysterically crying. It was really hard. Harder than I thought it would be."
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Bassingthwaighte also opened up about her new romance with Pip Loth, which she confirmed last year.
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The former soap star described their relationship as "beautiful" and said that Loth "understands" her more than anyone.
"They get me more than I understand myself," she said. "It’s been the wildest time in my life and it's beautiful."
Reflecting on her experience coming out, Bassingthwaighte added: "What I've learnt over this time is that I think I had internalised homophobia myself, so I was terrified about what people would say and think and feel.
"That's just ingrained in growing up in a certain time when you weren't allowed to be. It doesn't mean I don't get scared sometimes but that debilitating fear has gone. And it's beautiful. I feel heard, I feel safe, I feel connected."
Neighbours releases new episodes from Mondays to Thursdays for free on Amazon Freevee and Prime Video in the UK and US. In Australia, the show airs from Mondays to Thursdays at 4pm on Channel 10, with a 6.30pm repeat screening on 10 Peach Comedy.
