Rowena Wallace had to sell her Logie Awards to make ends meet.
And amid heartbreaking scenes on Channel Seven’s The Fame Game on Sunday night, the iconic actress, 74, got one of them back.
Ada Nicodemou of Home and Away said that she was presenting a Silver Logie to “Australia’s biggest TV legend,” who was the rightful owner of the award.
‘Oh my god, is this true? It’s also, oh my gosh!’ When Rowena was handed the Logie and told it was hers, she cried.
She wiped her tears away and joked that it had been years since she had seen it.
The tearful actress added, ‘Oh thank you, I don’t know what to say,’ before revealing it was her 1983 Silver Logie for Most Popular Lead Actress.
Throughout her career, Rowena has earned numerous Logies.
She won the Gold Logie for Most Popular Actress and the Silver Logie for Best Actress in a Series in 1984. She received Best Lead Actress in a Series in 1985.
The clinically depressed Sons and Daughters actress confessed in 2017 that she was struggling to make ends meet on ‘about $400 a week.’
She hesitantly agreed to let friends put up a GoFundMe campaign to help support a planned transfer to Brisbane.
She said to The Daily Telegraph at the time, ‘I don’t know what else to do.’
The former Home and Away star was uneasy about asking for money, admitting that she believes the criticism will be unavoidable.
She sold her Gold Logie a few years ago to help pay for her remote Victorian home, which she shares with her pet canines Phoebe and Reubus.
‘I’m not in terrific shape,’ she admitted, adding insult to injury. I suffer from excruciating chronic pain.’
She confessed that she had been suffering from anxiety for years, with each new bill adding to her distress.
She said that, like many actors who began their careers in the 1960s, she does not have a Superannuation fund because it was not needed at the time.
In 1981, she debuted as Patricia Dunne, also known as Pat the Rat, on the soap opera Sons and Daughters, where she soared to stardom.
