Since leaving the soap 25 years ago, the actress who starred in the iconic Home and Away couple has forge a highly successful career away from television.
An on-screen wife of one of the most iconic Home and Away characters, Alf Stewart, leads a very different life these days after leaving the world of acting behind.
Judy Nunn played Ailsa Stewart, the partner of diner owner Alf (Ray Meagher). She first appeared in the pilot of the long running soap way back in 1988 and continued to feature in the Channel 5 show until 2000, when she was killed off.
The 80-year-old has successfully pursued a successful career in a completely different field since leaving the show, which she first began working on on the Australian series’ set.
After his first wife, Martha passed away, Judy first appeared on our Summer Bay televisions as dating Alf. Although Ailsa was the store’s owner, she is infamous for killing her abusive father.
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After Martha drowned in a boating accident there, Alf decided to sell the Summer Bay caravan park. Ruth, Alf’s daughter, detested his and Ailsa’s union, who was deeply unapproving of her father’s new partner.
Both women were involved in a lot of other dramatic plots, including the appearance of long-lost children, the destruction of their home by a mudslide, and the burning of their diner, which was typical for a soap opera.
However, Ailsa’s most notable moment was when she died unexpectedly in 2000 from a heart attack, leaving her distraught husband and son. When Alf, who was going through a breakdown after his beloved passed away in his arms, began having visions of his deceased wife in 2003, she briefly appeared as a ghost. He later discovered that he had a brain tumor.
While she wasn’t a part of any major storylines, Judy decided to pursue a passion she had always enjoyed on the Home and Away set full-time. She has since developed a successful career from her hobby, which she used to write books. She explained to The Morning Show exactly why she became interested in side hussle acting.
When, for instance, we’re burying someone or getting married to someone [on Home and Away], you’ve got to smile and nod a lot, and at the funeral you’ve got to cry a lot, she said. “Practically, you’re an extra,” she said. “Sitting around was very boring, so I decided to write a book.”
Her first children’s book, The Riddle of the Trumpalar, was published in 1981, before she joined the C5 soap. From 1964 she was a leading stage actress before landing her breakthrough TV role in controversial Australian soap The Box as bisexual reporter Vicki Stafford. Judy, who is married to former Hong Kong police inspector and fellow actor and writer Bruce Venables, also appeared in Prisoner and as Dr. Irene Fisher in television serial Sons and Daughters .
She chose to continue writing novels after writing the scripts for the popular Aussie soap Neighbours and Possession. She wrote three more popular books throughout the 1980s and the early 1990s after her first children’s adventure. She began writing adult fiction in 1991, and she continued to do so with over 20 books with Australian themes, many of which have become bestsellers. In 2024, the most recent book, Stories from the Otto Bin Empire, was released.
Her entire collection has sold more than three million copies worldwide and her next book Pilbara, is due on October 28, accompanied by a tour of Australia. She currently lives in a beautiful house which overlooks the stunning Brisbane Water on the New South Wales Central Coast and is looking forward to one of her novels being turned into a series.
