LYNNE McGRANGER - Time to be the real me

For 33 years, Lynne McGranger has become used to people mistakenly calling her "Irene". But now, as she bids farewell to Home and Away and takes on a new project, she's ready for the world to finally get to know the real Lynne.

- WORDS by TIFFANY DUNK PHOTOGRAPHY by WILL HORNER STYLING by MATTIE CRONAN

It was only supposed to be a three-month stint. Departing their home in Melbourne with 20-month-old daughter Clancy McWaters in tow, Lynne Granger – who was replacing original actress Jacquy Phillips on the Sydney set of Home and Away – half-jokingly said to her partner, Paul, that, “if I get offered this as a full-time gig, you’re going to have to give up work”.

Luckily the musician and sound engineer, who Lynne had met when she was performing comedy in Albury in the mid-1980s, was “raring to go” when that three months eventually turned into what would be an impressive 33-year contract. Having dated for six years, it was Paul, says Lynne, “that kind of got clucky”, leading to the arrival of Clancy the day before Lynne’s 38th birthday in 1991. Being a stay-at-home dad was a dream come true.

“He couldn’t wait,” she laughs of his eagerness to be the chief caregiver, stopping work during their daughter’s formative years.

“He would do the reading. Take her to ballet, to netball. He loved it. I don’t know how parents cope with young children when they’re both working. Invariably someone’s just earning money to pay for childcare, so we were very blessed for Paul to bring her up through her school years.”

It also gave Clancy – who married Luke Dickson in 2023 - some great modelling when it came to not having to follow traditional gender roles.

“It’s happening more now, but it was rare,” she says today as she joins her mum in a photoshoot to celebrate the end of an extraordinary era. “Mum and Dad - they’re not married – were quite different to other families. Mum was the main breadwinner and it’s been cool because I’ve been raised with the belief that it doesn’t have to be that way where the woman stays at home, and men go to work. I’ve got two awesome role models.”

Becoming Irene