Home and Away star responds to hateful messages over baby plot

 "My job is acting not writing."

Home and Away star Jessica Redmayne has responded to hateful messages she has received over character Harper Matheson's baby plot.

Scenes that have aired in Australia have seen Harper learn that she is pregnant with Tane Parata's baby, which comes after the death of Tane's former wife Felicity.

After sharing a promo clip of Harper breaking the news to Tane, however, the actor received some negative comments from some, likely due to the fact that Tane and Felicity were a popular couple with fans.

Jessica subsequently shared a message to her followers following the backlash, writing in her Instagram Stories: "Please don't message me telling me to stay away from Tane or how much you hate Harper.

"My name is Jess and I'm an actor. My job is acting not writing. I shared that promo because I'm proud of my work."

In a subsequent video, Jessica suggested that fans should be able to voice their opinion, though requested that they not "attack" actors doing a job.

"I just want to say thank you to everyone that has messaged me to show their love and support," she said. "I'm quite overwhelmed by the response that that post that I did last night has received.

"And I also just wanted to say that by no means should anyone stop voicing their opinion about the show, because it's wonderful that people have opinions about these characters and you know you're really invested in these characters. Don't ever stop voicing those opinions."

The star continued: "But I guess the point that I was making was that please don't enter our DMs and attack us as actors. Because we are actors and we are portraying a character and we are telling a story. So yeah, that's our job.

"But thank you for being fans. Thank you for loving the show, and thank you to my friends and my family that have shown support and care and love. I very much appreciate it."

Home and Away airs weekdays at 1.45pm on Channel 5, with repeat screenings at 6pm on 5STAR and first look screenings at 6.30pm on 5STAR. Selected classic episodes are available via Prime Video in the UK.