With the discovery that Marilyn Chambers gave birth to a secret child back in 1995, the connection between Marilyn from Home and Away and newcomer Heather has been made clear.
Recent episodes have witnessed escalating tensions between Marilyn (Emily Symons) – one of Home and Away’s longest-serving characters – and new character Heather (Sofia Nolan) (Sofia Nolan).
Last month, Heather came to Summer Bay to study under Roo (Georgie Parker), but it soon became evident that she was really there for Marilyn.
As soon as Heather established herself, she moved into the RV park, started dating Nikau (Kawakawa Fox-Reo), and began her best efforts torment Marilyn.
It started with awkward looks and understated remarks and ended with Heather leaving Marilyn’s name on an envelope outside Summer Bay House that contained a baby photo and the words “Guess who?” scrawled on the back.
Heather also admitted to Roo that she once had an affair with her boss and had to give up the child as a result. It was obvious from Marilyn’s expression to the audience that Heather’s story was actually Marilyn’s when she learned of Heather’s purported backstory.
This week’s earlier episode clarified that Heather was in fact Marilyn’s child. Heather pulled out a birth certificate, which showed that she was born in April 1995 to Timothy Frazer, a grazier, and Marilyn Chambers, a housekeeper.
In tonight’s Australian episode, Leah (Ada Nicodemou) and Roo, who had organised an intervention after a series of unpleasant confrontations between Marilyn, Heather and Nikau, came close to convincing Marilyn that her problems were all in her head.
Maz assured Leah that she continued to take her medication, but when Leah questioned whether it would need to be reviewed, Marilyn said it might be worth a shot. She even consented to apologise to Heather because she was now convinced that she might have been at fault.
Marilyn, however, was persuaded by Heather’s subsequent action that Heather was actually targeting her and that there was nothing erroneous with her mental state.
Marilyn was sound sleeping on the sofa when Heather broke into Summer Bay House in the middle of the night.
She entered the kitchen covertly, opened a bottle of wine, poured the contents into a glass, and set it on the coffee table in front of Maz. Marilyn received the baby picture in her arms as well.
Marilyn was discovered in this manner by Roo the following morning, exactly as Heather had intended. As a result, her closest friend now believed that Marilyn had turned to alcohol to help her with her problems.
In the diner later on, Heather asked Marilyn, “how are you feeling this morning? You slept well, right? Maz was told in no uncertain terms that she had created the precarious situation.
Marilyn at last told Leah the truth after realising she could no longer keep it a secret (Ada Nicodemou).
She divulged a secret that she’s kept concealed for the past 27 years – that, when she was younger, she’d had an affair with her boss, a man called Tim, culminating in a baby.
When I was quite young and embarked on a cross-country vacation with my partner, things didn’t work out, and we broke up.
It wasn’t easy for me at the time, and I was really lonely, so I obtained a job as a maid on a cattle station in the middle of nowhere. However, my boss treated me incredibly well, so I leaned on him. And I was naive and young.
I became pregnant. And I gave birth to a girl. And I believe Heather to be my daughter.
She admitted that, “not to John, not to anyone,” she had never previously spoken it aloud.
Tim informed his wife when she informed him that she wanted to retain the child. Marilyn was allowed to stay with them until the baby was born, and the couple remained together. Prior to the birth, everything appeared to be alright, but soon after, everything changed.
The pair steadfastly stated that they wanted to adopt Marilyn’s child in order to provide a better life for her. Marilyn, who was unemployed and had nowhere to live as well as no money, believed she was acting morally and that the baby would live a better life with her father in a stable environment.
Her daughter has grown up and is now looking for her 27 years later.
Maz was concerned about what Alf and Roo, her two oldest friends, would say when Leah tried to persuade Marilyn to open up to them.
Since I’ve known them for the majority of my adult life, I’ve kept quiet. If I told them, I don’t think they’d be able to look me in the eye.
Marilyn Chambers made her Summer Bay debut as Lance Smart’s girlfriend in 1989. (Peter Vroom). She declined Lance’s marriage proposal a few months later, which caused her to leave the bay for three months. She soon returned, though, and finally started dating Phil Briant (Vince Martin).
She and Phil became engaged in 1992, and they also took Toni, Phil’s daughter, out of Summer Bay that year (Kathryn Dufty).
When Maz arrived in 1995, we were told that she had left Phil as soon as she found out he had been having an affair and that she had come back to Summer Bay not long after. Upon her return, she sobbed as she revealed that Phil was in love with someone else in Alf’s storage area.
Now, this most recent information shows that she left Summer Bay for a while after learning about Phil’s romance.
Instead, she started working at a cattle station where she got to know her boss well and eventually had an affair with him that gave birth to a child. After the baby was born, Marilyn finally made her way back to Summer Bay.
The news that Marilyn has an adoptive son named Jett (Will McDonald), which Heather discovered in the same episode, seemed to hurt her. When the pair finally talk, how will Heather react to the knowledge that her mother, who she believes abandoned her, went on to adopt a child of her own?
The episodes that will air the next week give the impression that the drama is far from done and that Marilyn and Heather still have a ways to go before they can start dating. Marilyn will be falsely accused of abuse on Tuesday’s programme, and Roo will accuse Marilyn of cyberbullying on Wednesday.
Thankfully, the mother and daughter will start trying to build a relationship by the end of the following week. The first episode of the triple bill that will air on next Thursday asks, “Marilyn and Heather cease pretending,” while the second episode’s teaser poses the question, “Will Heather give Marilyn a second chance?”
After 27 years apart, will the duo have the chance to rekindle their mother-daughter relationship?
