Lynette starts over 'I'VE PACKED UP MY OLD LIFE'

The single Shorty star is making the most of what possibilities lie ahead after 13 years in her beloved family home

- Rebekah Hebenton

When Lynette Forday decided to sell the home where she had raised her family, she knew it wouldn't be easy to pack up more than a decade's worth of memories.

But as she stands on the verge of saying a final farewell to the six-bedroom house in Auckland's leafy suburbs, she's surprisingly at peace, even enthusiastic, about her next chapter.

“It's been quite an event clearing 13 years of a life filled with children and memories,” she says. “But this is my time. It's scary, yet I'm excited for new beginnings and to see where my life goes.”

The past few years have been a significant period of transition for the Shortland Street icon.

Lynette's kids have flown the nest – her daughter is now in her final year of studying law at the University of Otago and plans to move to the UK when she's finished. Her stepchildren have all moved to Australia.

Then two years ago, she separated from her husband of 20 years. Suddenly she found herself alone in a big house.