The handling of the Amber Harrison incident would not impact Kate Ritchie's decision-making in returning to Seven if she were to head back to the network's most well-known address, Summer Bay.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"No. Not at all," the former Home & Away star told Fairfax Media.
"I don't really want to get drawn into a conversation about that, but no, absolutely not," said the actor and radio host, who describes herself as "conservative to a fault".
Up until this week the network, which broadcasts Home & Away, had been embroiled in an ugly legal battle with Harrison, a former executive assistant, who went public with details of her 18-month affair with the Seven's chief executive Tim Worner last December.
The Supreme Court found Harrison acted unreasonably and made allegations she "could not substantiate". The single, unemployed foster mother, was then ordered to pay the media company's legal bills.
After 20 years on Seven's marquee show, Ritchie left Home & Away in 2008 and has since returned once in 2013 for a cameo appearance. On the eve of the soap series' 30th anniversary, she said she wouldn't rule out reviving her character of Sally Fletcher but feels that "that chapter of my life is over", Ritchie said.
"It's like an old boyfriend you've had and you have such fond memories of them but you can't get back with them. You love them, you had the best time, they taught you so much but if you ever got back together within the first few weeks you'd be like 'Oh no, this is a mistake' in a good way, no hard feelings," she said.
"People ask me if I get sick of older ladies coming up to me in the supermarket to tell me how much they loved the show and but it's honestly one of the best things," she said.
Another silver lining of no longer being on TV regularly, she said, is not having her face plastered across tabloid magazines.
However despite now carving out a successful career in radio as a presenter on Nova's drive show in Sydney, Ritchie has jumped back in front of the camera again, albeit in her underwear for lingerie and lounge wear label Jockey.
"Trying new things is something I've attempted to do over the last 10 years. One of the main objectives of leaving the safety of Summer Bay was to try new things, push the boundaries and prove to myself that I'm not just that little girl who grew up there, which I'm incredibly proud of, but I'd turned 30 and it was time to do some new things and this campaign is part of that."
As well as promoting the new homely threads by Jockey, she is also in the midst of writing another book – a follow up to her debut children's book I Just Couldn't Wait to Meet You – something she is doing now at home, usually dressed in her skivvies.
