Home & Away’s Leah: Ada Nicodemou’s family, co-star romance and life away from 25 years in Summer Bay

She is a fan favourite for a reason – Ada has been playing the role of Leah on Home and Away since 2000, and the soap would not be the same without her character

Home & Away’s Leah and Justin: Ada Nicodemou and James Stewart

Ada Nicodemou is a Home & Away icon, with 25 years on the popular soap opera under her belt – after initially agreeing to join Summer Bay for just six months.

Playing the role of Leah Patterson-Baker, she is a fan favourite on the series, and she takes her role as one of the soap’s longest-serving stars seriously.

“I genuinely love it,” she told Digital Spy. “It’s a real achievement [in this industry] and I don’t take it lightly… Half of my life has been spent in Home and Away and while I never expected to be here, I’m so proud of it.”

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While romances are often complicated and tumultuous in the soap world, in real life Ada has found her perfect match in one of her co-stars .

Ada and James Stewart began dating in early 2024 – but their on-screen love began earlier, with their characters Leah and Justin Morgan’s romance storyline beginning back in 2019.

Leah made her Summer Bay debut in 2000, while the Justin character joined the soap in 2016.

Home & Away’s Leah and Justin: Ada Nicodemou and James Stewart

The in-real-life couple recently celebrated one year together with an elegant dinner at Mimi’s in Sydney.

Their relationship started after a long friendship of 25 years, with the couple describing their romance as “unexpected.”

Ada admitted growing feelings for her Summer Bay co-star was “weird” at the beginning, as they had known one another for decades.

“Jimmy and I have known each other for 25 to 30 years and there were no feelings for a really, really long time. So I was shocked when I started having feelings,” she said, speaking on Mamamia’s No Filter podcast.

“There was this chemistry for the first time — this spark that happened that wasn’t there before and it was weird.”

Away from her love life, Ada is a proud mum. She shares her son Johnas, born in 2012, with her ex-husband Chrys Xipolitas.

Sadly, the couple’s second child was delivered stillborn in 2014.

“Life will never be the same again; there will obviously be a hole in your heart. We will always remember that child and what could have been,” Ada told Stellar Magazine in 2019.

“I’ve had counselling, and I’ve just gone back again. It’s going to be an ongoing thing, because I want to get in a better place where I don’t freeze up when he’s mentioned.”

Home & Away’s Leah: Ada Nicodemou

She is also a wonderful auntie to her niece Sofia.

Away from acting, she is also a children’s book author, bringing more representation into the world of children’s literature with her Mia Megastar series, as the books tie in her Greek heritage.

“It was not represented anywhere on TV or in books,” she told 7NEWS.com.au.

“I love the fact that now there are young kids out there who can read this book and go, ‘Oh we do Greek church as well’, so I think that’s great.

“There are also people who don’t know anything about our culture and so it’s a bit of education into Greek culture.”

She is a fan favourite for a reason – Ada has been playing the role of Leah on Home and Away since 2000, and the soap would not be the same without her character Home & Away’s Leah and Justin: Ada Nicodemou and James Stewart Ada Nicodemou is a Home & Away icon, with 25…