Sonya fears for her family’s future
AS HER RAMSAY STREET ALTER EGO’S BOOZING CONTINUES, EVE MOREY HAS SOME SAGE WORDS OF ADVICE…
We’ve been watching soaps for long enough to know that there’s no such thing as a truly happy couple – yet despite ourselves, we couldn’t help hoping that Neighbours’ Toadie and Sonya would buck the trend. Never in a million years did we think either of them would cheat, which is why it’s devastating to see their marriage in tatters following Toadie’s betrayal with the woman who claimed to be his late wife Dee.
Inside Soap are not the only ones heartbroken by the shock split, though – when we catch up with actress Eve Morey, who plays Sonya, she admits that she’s also finding the Rebecchis’ separation difficult to deal with…
“I feel quite traumatised by the whole thing,” she tells us. “I still get angry with Ryan [Moloney, who plays Toadie] for what his character did! I’m sure he finds it annoying that I’m telling him how much I don’t like him – he says to me, ‘It’s not real!’. But we have different ways of dealing with it.
“We’d prefer for our characters to be happy, of course, though we know it’s going to be a long road before that,” adds Eve. “Even if Sonya and Jarrod [aka Toadie] get back together, you don’t just forgive and forget. We’re both anxious about how long this level of animosity will go on for.”
This week, relations between the estranged couple reach an all-time low after Toadie storms into No 30 and scoops up his daughter Nell, insisting that she’s coming to stay at his for the night. The tense confrontation with her ex leaves Sonya shaken to the core, and prompts the alcoholic mother to reach for the bottle once more to blot it all out.
“Every time she has a drink, Sonya feels immense guilt and regret, and insists that this will be the last time,” explains Eve. “But then things get too much for her, and she feels like it’s her only outlet.”
As if going out and getting absolutely battered isn’t bad enough, Sonya wakes up with the hangover from hell – and there’s no hiding her inebriated state from her housemate Steph.
“Steph tries to ask her about it, but Sonya just denies, denies, denies,” reveals Eve. “It’s incredibly difficult for her because she knows there is the potential for Jarrod and Nell to find out. She could have her child taken away from her – but at the same time, she can’t stop.”
It’s incredibly sad to watch someone as strong as Sonya being beaten down by her addiction, and there’s no end in sight to her hell right now. But Eve reckons that her alter ego could ease her burden if she just asked her friends for help…
“Sonya needs to talk to people,” advises the actress. “The moment she stopped speaking to friends was the moment she started drinking. I would say to Sonya, ‘Be open and honest’. She’s got people around her who love her, and they don’t want her to fail – they want her to succeed.”
Things get too much, and Sonya feels like alcohol is her only outlet