Melissa George welcomed a baby at 47. 7 years ago she was pleading with Australia to help her sons.

If you were growing up in Australia in the 90s,  the name 'Melissa George' was likely to be one you knew very well. 

She was a breakout star on soap drama, Home & Away and looked set to follow a similar path to international fame as so many other Australia's actors have before and since; from Margot Robbie to Kylie Minogue.

Except somewhere along the way, that well-trodden path detoured into a different kind of drama that included a move to Europe, a disastrous interview, a devastating custody fight and now a third child at the age of 47.

From being the poster-girl for a generation of Australian teenage girls to finding herself unable to return to her home country— how did Melissa George end up where she is today?

An Aussie star is born.

After starting her career as a model in the early 90s, her big break came in 1993 when she was cast in Channel 7's hit show, Home and Away, as a runaway teen named Angel Parrish.

Quickly, she became a fan-favourite and before long, her on-screen romance with co-star Dieter Brummer became the focus of the show. The wedding between Angel and Shane was one of the most watched television events in Australian broadcast history. 

The wedding between Shane and Angel on Home and Away. Image: TV Week.

Like most actors who get their start on Home & Away or Neighbours, George had her eye on Hollywood and when she made the decision to quit the show and move there in 1996, fans of the show were devastated.

Breaking into the U.S.

For the next decade, things seemed to be going well. While there was no single role that catapulted her into Hollywood superstardom in the way, say, Margot Robbie blew up when she co-starred with Leonardo di Caprio in The Wolf Of Wallstree,  George landed an impressive number of notable parts starring alongside some big names.
She was soon cast in the TV series Roar with fellow Aussie Heath Ledger, Mulholland Drive with Naomi Watts and throughout the early 2000s she continued to be an in-demand actor landing parts in TV series and movies like Friends, Charmed, The Amityville Horror, Grey's Anatomy and The Good Wife. 

In 2009 she reached a career high after receiving a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film for her part in the show In Treatment. 

On the personal side of things, George married film director Claudio Dabed, however their relationship ended in divorce in 2011. However, that same year she fell in love again when she met French entrepreneur Jean David Blanc — soon she found herself packing up her life in LA and moving to Paris.

Public backlash

In 2012, the actress did an interview on The Morning Show hosted by Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies. When quizzed about her time on the soap Home and Away, she bristled. She reportedly walked off the set after the interview and launched into a pretty heated attack against her home nation. 

"I don't need credibility from my country any more, I just need them all to be quiet," she told the Sun Herald. "If they have nothing intelligent to say, please don't speak to me anymore. I'd rather be having a croissant and an espresso in Paris or walking my French bulldog in New York City."

To say this did not go down well in Australia would be an understatement.

Asked about her comments in another interview several years later, she explained it had been a difficult time for her personally.

"The problem was, I wanted children. It was the fact I yearned to feel complete and didn't want to reflect on the past," she told the publication. It was purely an animal thing because I hadn't had my family yet and I was depressed. It's basically why I acted the way I acted. But I couldn't just talk about Home And Away, to be honest."

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The custody battle.

After a few years living in Paris with Blanc the couple welcomed their first son, Raphaël, in 2014. Just a year later they had their second child, a son named Solal. While she had finally realised her dream to become a mother, her relationship was falling apart.

Jean-David Blanc and Melissa George in 2016. Image: Getty.

By 2016 George had separated from Blanc and cited domestic abuse as the cause of the split. George alleged at the time that her former partner had left her with injuries to her head and neck so bad she had to be hospitalised. She alleged that Blanc smashed her head into a metal coat rack after an argument escalated. Given the charges that had been put forward, Blanc was ordered to pay his former spouse around AUD$1,500.

In 2017 George appeared on Australian current affairs programme Sunday Night to share her story of domestic abuse.

"I just went into a crazy moment of like, 'I'm in deep sh**,'" she recalled during the interview. "And so I just tried to fight for myself which made him more angry, which made me more angry."

He pushed me into the door, and then struck my face and I hit the wall and fell on the floor and I was out."

At one point during the sit-down interview she told journalist Steve Pennells in a moment of desperation that she had pleaded with the Australian government to step in and help her with the custody restrictions imposed by a French court. At the time she wasn't allowed to leave France with her two sons unless she had written permission from Blanc after he alleged she had tried to kidnap them.

"I just want my country to help me get home and to see this crazy crap we're going through. I need someone to understand what happened," she said.

Melissa George appearing on Sunday Night. Image: Channel 7.

At the time, she received surprisingly little pubic sympathy in Australia and the Australian Government was powerless to intervene. She chose to remain living in Paris where she has shared custody of her sons with her former partner ever since.

And now, a new baby at 47.

After an incredibly difficult few years, George anounced on Instagram in March 2024 that she was about to welcome her third child — another boy.  She did not disclose the identity of her baby's father or how he was conceived. 

Toward the end of March she announced the safe arrival of her youngest son.

"Welcome to the world my little man," she posted. "Love knows no end. A mother of 3 sons. Cannot believe it. My heart is so full."

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Feature Image: Getty, Instagram/@melissageorgeofficial.

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