Home and Away's Lynne McGranger floored when she discovered pal was married to co-star

 Home and Away actress Lynne McGranger revealed she 'nearly died' when she discovered her friend and co-star Shane Withington was married to his former on-screen wife in real life

Home and Away star Lynne McGranger admitted she was shocked upon discovering Shan Withington was married to his former on-screen wife.

The actress, 70, has portrayed Irene Roberts since 1993 while 64-year-old Shane joined the cast of the Aussie soap as John Palmer in 2009.

Following the recent explosion, John suffered a heart attack and moved in with Irene during his recovery.

But while John has been driving Irene mad, she returned home from her shift at the diner during Friday's episode (August 18) to find the surf club worker has cooked her dinner, leaving her gobsmacked.

Off-screen, Lynne opened about a conversation which took place a few years after Shane joined the soap and led to the discovery of his marriage to Anne Tenney.

"About two years after Shane joined the show we were both in the green room and I said to him, ‘You married?’” she told 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 first met on the hit 80s Australian soap opera A Country Practice, where they played on-screen couple Brendan and Molly Jones.

Lynne confessed she "nearly died" when she discovered their relationship had translated off-screen, adding: “I was like ‘Are you kidding me, are you two together in real life’?

"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!"

Gushing over her working relationship with Shane, Lynne admitted they "always got on and enjoyed working together".

“He’s such a darling and so fun to work with," she said.

“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.”