Soaps
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The Australian actress, who quit the soap opera in 2007 after playing Sally Fletcher for 20 years, said that it feels "really good" to be playing a police detective on new television drama Cops LAC.
Ritchie told The Daily Telegraph: "There are many different layers and a job... doesn't define you. Leaving Home and Away was about finding out if I would be okay without the boundaries of that show, that job.
"I'd always said maybe it was everybody else who couldn't see me as anyone else but Sally, but I think it got to a point where maybe I started to lose sight of that.''
"[The new show] feels really simple, really good. The first couple of weeks I was back on set and I thought, 'Actually all those things I learned on Home and Away, over 20 years that you don't even realise you are observing, they're actually skills.
"It wasn't just a hobby. It was nice to come back to that and feel confident.''
Ritchie also said that her life is "crazy" but "exciting" at the moment as she prepares for her wedding to rugby league player Stuart Webb.
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