The Stewart family from the serial opera Home and Away on Channel 5 is among the most recognisable in the series, and Alf is among the most adored Summer Bay residents ever.
The core of Home and Away is the storied Stewart family.
Fan fiction claims that the Stewart family has lived in Summer Bay since their Scottish ancestor Angus Stewart came there in May 1852.
Alf Stewart is without a doubt the clan’s most recognisable face. The strict yet “goon-natured rogue,” who appears grouchy but is actually a giant softie, has been a regular of the popular Australian soap opera since 1988.
Stone the flamin’ crows, ya flamin’ mongrel, and ya flamin’ galah are just a few of Alf’s catchphrases. The majority of them contain the term “flamin’.”
Members of the Stewart family have appeared in some of the soap opera’s most dramatic plots, including stories about cancer and people coming back from the “dead.”
Many of them, like Alf Stewart, have left the soap opera (for a bit). We thus examine their current whereabouts in light of the shocking kidnapping plot that is now airing on Home and Away.
Judy Nunn – Ailsa Stewart
Judy portrayed Ailsa Stewart, Alf’s wife and Duncan’s mother, from 1988 until her death in a heart attack plot in 2000.
Judy, 77, reportedly departed the soap opera in real life to focus on writing books; she is an experienced author. She has written several YA best-sellers in addition to the scripts for Possession and Neighbours.
Judy also specialises in historical fiction set in Australia.
Jodi Gordon – Martha McKenzie
Jodi’s turbulent personal life has frequently made news in addition to her modelling and acting careers.
When Christopher Burkhardt, her lover at the time, passed away at age 23 from a rare and deadly form of cancer, she was just 21.
When Christopher fell into a coma, Jodi was by his side. She was left “shattered” when he passed away a week later.
Jodi said of the sad loss: “How perfect are our lives? That’s what we used to ask one another. We were in a wonderful relationship and both had fantastic jobs. She described Christopher as her “loving soulmate” and said, “It was all peaches and cream.”
Thereafter, she had a number of unsuccessful relationships, including a brief marriage to rugby league star Braith Anasta, with whom she shares an eight-year-old daughter.
The 37-year-old Jodi, who previously played in Neighbours, recently acknowledged her struggles with alcohol and depression and how treatment compelled her to participate in immersion therapy.
Belinda Giblin – Martha Stewart
Belinda played Martha, Alf’s long-lost wife, in the 1988 episode of the soap opera.
She vanished for thirty years, and when she abruptly returned to Summer Bay in 2018, she upended her husband’s world.
Belinda underwent a kidney transplant earlier this year, and her departure devastated her followers.
However, the soap star’s life off-screen is almost as dramatic as it is on the Channel 5 programme.
In 1984, Belinda wed the set designer Axel Bartz, with whom she has a son and a daughter.
Axel was the resident set designer for the South Australian Theatre Company in Adelaide at the time Belinda was an actress in a touring performance of Bedroom Farce.
Belinda previously described her marriage as “explosive,” claiming that both of them might be “pig-headed” and “anxious about survival,” with both of them occasionally being jobless.
Morag Bellingham – Cornelia Frances
Cornelia debuted as Morag in Summer Bay in 1988, and over the following 34 years, she intermittently played Alf’s judge sister.
Before regretfully passing away, she made one last cameo on television in a 2017 episode of Home and Away.
Although the actress officially disclosed her bladder cancer diagnosis, she wanted to still appear on the Australian soap opera’s 30th anniversary.
Nevertheless, despite receiving chemotherapy and radiation therapy, Cornelia passed away from the illness in May 2017, only months before turning 77.
Cornelia Frances was remembered by her former co-stars Ray Meagher and Judy Nunn, and Channel Seven said in a statement: “Cornelia Frances was a remarkable person. A generation of actresses were inspired by her on-screen appearance.
“This gift was paired with the capacity to elicit respect and presence in whatever space she visited. Her spirit and personality will be missed.
