Although Sophie Dillman and Patrick O’Connor of Home and Away are the sweetest pair on and off-screen, their first date was actually somewhat eventful.
Dillman, who portrays Ziggy Astoni on the soap opera, spoke candidly about her endometriosis in a recent interview with Yahoo! Lifestyle. She also discussed how it affected her first date with O’Connor. Endometriosis is a condition where tissue that resembles uterine lining grows in other parts of the body. It can cause excruciating pain and take a significant toll on a person’s mental health as well as their overall quality of life.
In Newtown, New South Wales, Dillman and O’Connor were enjoying burgers when she unexpectedly needed to leave the establishment.
I declared, “I must sit down right away. We’re on King Street; you can’t sit down, [Patrick] replied, according to Dillman.
I called my mother while I was sitting in a laneway and said, “Mum, I’ve got to go to the hospital, it’s so horrible, I don’t have enough painkillers. My sister was also giving me all this advise, and the poor man had never witnessed anything like that before!
He was like, ‘I don’t know how to help you, but I’m going to try,'” Dillman continued. And he was absolutely amazing. He did a tonne of research and kept a hot water bottle in his car for me when my endometriosis started becoming really bad again, bless his cotton socks.
When they first started dating and were living apart, O’Connor produced a “pain packet” at his house just in case Dillman needed it. According to Dillman, O’Connor was the most helpful partner she could have had.
Dillman claimed that having individuals in her life who are like O’Connor makes the excruciating condition a little bit easier to bear.
“Those people that support you in your life, whether they are your partner, parents, friends, or family, are just precious pearls. And indeed, without you, we couldn’t do it.
Dillman and O’Connor had been dating for a while and attended acting school together when they were younger. Home and Away welcomed Dillman in 2017, and a year later welcomed O’Connor as Dean Thompson. In the programme, they play a couple.
