Home and Away's Sally star entered mental health clinic after drink driving charge

 Home and Away's Leah Patterson was forced to check herself into a mental health clinic but this actually happened in real life to actress Kate Ritchie who played Sally Fletcher.

Leah Patterson was forced to check herself into a mental health clinic on Home and Away.

Over the past few weeks, Leah's trauma has taken over her as she continues living with the aftermath of being kidnapped and left for dead by a cult. Leah's skewed reality made her believe that her partner Justin Morgan (James Stewart) was working betraying her and working with the cult that terrorised them.

During Monday's episode of the Channel 5 soap, Leah took drastic action as she pulled a knife on Justin. The tense showdown saw Justin attempt to talk his former fiancee down before Theo (Matt Evans) walked in.

He begged his Auntie to drop the knife, but this only made Leah more distressed. Theo called Bree (Juliet Godwin), who managed to get through to Leah and convince her to put the knife down.

Returning home, Leah explained to Bree that she has no memory of what occurred that evening, but became confused and frightened by fleeting memories of her brandishing a weapon. Bree determined that Leah had a psychotic episode, likely caused by a combination of her trauma and sleep deprivation.

Realising she could have seriously hurt Justin, Leah agreed to check into a mental health clinic. In December 2022, Kate Ritchie checked into an exclusive mental health clinic.

The actress, best known for playing Sally Fletcher on the Australian soap, entered the facility in Sydney to help combat her issues with alcohol. In October, two months after she was charged with drink driving and suspended from driving for three months, the former soap star announced she was leaving her afternoon drive radio show on Nova for the rest of the year.

In May 2023, Kate opened up about motherhood following her stint in rehab as she admitted that her daughter gives her purpose. The 45-year-old shares nine-year-old Mae with her ex-NRL star husband Stuart Webb.

Mae gives me incredible purpose and strength and she is one of the few people who allow me to be truly me," she told The Sunday Telegraph. "Nothing more or less." Kate added: "I am merely her mummy and she loves me for that. In fact, if I am to be really honest, as she gets older she is also teaching me I am deserving of love."