Home and Away star Lynne McGranger shocked by real-life soap romance

 "It was the most exciting thing ever!"

Home and Away star Lynne McGranger has revealed she was initially shocked to learn that Shane Withington was in a relationship with his A Country Practice co-star Anne Tenney.

Lynne and Shane's characters Irene Roberts and John Palmer have recently been in a fake relationship in Australian-pace episodes of Home and Away, though the actress opened up about a real-life conversation they had a few years after Shane joined the soap.

“About two years after Shane joined the show we were both in the green room and I said to him, ‘You married?’” she recalled to 7Life.

“He goes, ‘Yeah, I’ve got a partner, we’ve been together for 30 years' at the time and I said, ‘Oh what’s her name’, and he said Anne.”

Shane and Anne appeared on Aussie soap A Country Practice together in the 1980s, Lynne admitting she "nearly died" when she found out they were a couple in real life.

“I was like, ‘Are you kidding me, are you two together in real life’?" she continued.

“I suddenly turned into this hopeless soap romantic, I couldn’t believe it and [was] so excited that the real Brendan and the real Molly were actually together in real life. It was the most exciting thing ever!”

Lynne went on to say that after learning about their relationship, she and Shane “always got on and enjoyed working together”.

“He’s such a darling and so fun to work with," she added. “What I love about Shane is that he actually reminds me of myself, not afraid to really go for it, go over the top and then let the director pull it back.”

Home and Away airs weekdays at 1.45pm on Channel 5 and 6pm on 5STAR. First-look screenings air at 6.30pm on 5STAR and the show also streams on My5.