Home and Away star Emily Symons looked ageless as she stepped out on the red carpet this week. The actress, 55, best known for her role of hairdresser Marilyn Chambers on the Australian soap, stunned in a sheer black lace dress featuring a sexy thigh-high split as she attended the 64th TV WEEK Logie Awards on August 18, 2024 in Sydney, Australia.
Emily first appeared on Home and Away in 1989, starring for ten years before departing for a series of other roles, including a stint on Emmerdale, although she later returned to her Home and Away role in 2010. The star also had a stint on Dancing On Ice in 2007, but was voted out in the semi-final following a skate-off against Blue’s Duncan James.
After years living in the UK and seven years playing Louise Appleton on Emmerdale, Emily returned to her native Australia to reprise her Home and Away role and has resided there ever since.
Off screen, Emily’s romantic history includes two marriages – her first to drummer Nick Lipscombe, who she met in London in the early 90s. Speaking about her relationship to The Mirror in 2002, she said: “I got married at 23 and I thought that was the be-all and end-all.
“But I was far too young and we weren’t right for each other. I put so much value on having a partner that I cut myself short in terms of my career. It’s been a long journey for me to realise that.”
Her second marriage was to Lorenzo Smith, the son of Viscount Hambleden and a descendant of English stationery tycoon W. H. Smith. The couple were married for two years between 2003 and 2005. They married in Henley-on-Thames before taking a romantic honeymoon in Positano.
However, things weren’t to last, with the couple divorcing after two years of marriage. She later opened up on how the couple’s journey to have children via IVF had put strain on the marriage. Speaking to the Sunday Mirror in 2007, she said: “I found it soul-destroying – it was like having PMT, but a million times worse. It wrecked our relationship in the end. We separated in June 2005, just after we found out we’d failed for a second time.”
Prior to her marriage to Lorenzo Smith, Emily was engaged to Premier League footballer Matt Le Tissier, who she met in the late nineties when Emily was starring in a pantomime of Goldilocks in Southampton.
The pair began dating in 1999 and got engaged six months later, but the relationship ended before the couple made it down the aisle. Although Emily is known to many for her Home and Away role, she also had a stint on Emmerdale as Louise Appleton, who worked as a barmaid at The Woolpack Pub.
It was during her time on the show that Emily had a romance with co-star Matthew King, with the couple dating for 15 months, and even performing a duet together on Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes.
However, things came to an end shortly before Emily’s Dancing On Ice appearance in 2007. Emily later found love with Nova Entertainment Group Programming Director Paul Jackson, with the couple later embarking on a relationship in 2010.
Emily and Paul also welcomed their son Henry via IVF in 2015. Speaking to New Idea about her son, Emily said: “I very much thought it couldn’t happen and I was too old. I thought it would be impossible but it isn’t. I’d given up, really, I thought I had tried every avenue that was available to us. My advice is to not give up if you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by the whole process.”
The couple sadly split however around a year after Henry’s birth.