When Lynette Forday decided to sell the home where she had raised her family, she knew it wouldn’t be easy to pack up more than a decade’s worth of memories. But as she stands on the verge of saying a final farewell to the six-bedroom house in Auckland’s leafy suburbs, she’s surprisingly at peace, even enthusiastic, about her next chapter.
Clearing the past
“It’s been quite an event clearing 13 years of a life filled with children and memories,” she says.
“But this is my time. It’s scary, yet I’m excited for new beginnings and to see where my life goes.”
The past few years have been a significant period of transition for the Shortland Street icon. Lynette’s kids have flown the nest – her daughter is now in her final year of studying law at the University of Otago and plans to move to the UK when she’s finished. Her stepchildren have all moved to Australia.
The end of one chapter, the start of another
Then two years ago, she separated from her husband of 20 years. Suddenly she found herself alone in a big house.
“Everyone’s deserted me – except for the dog and the cat!” she laughs.
“It was a difficult decision but on the other hand, it’s ridiculous having so many rooms. It was ridiculous back when the kids were still here.”
The final straw for Lynette was when she landed the role of Inspector Sharon Lie Feng in the TVNZ+ drama A Remarkable Place to Die. Last year, she spent five months in Queenstown filming the series alongside Rebecca Gibney and Chelsie Preston Crayford.
Juggling a sprawling home in Auckland while working on set was no small feat. Something had to give and with season two beginning filming in the coming months, Lynette knew it was time to lighten the load.
After years of having to fit her acting career around family life, she wanted to be free to jet off at a moment’s notice, wherever the next job may take her.
Rediscovering herself
“The role is amazing and the show’s fantastic,” Lynette enthuses.
“I’m finding me again and remembering who I was before marriage and children.”
While there are the expected challenges of downsizing, she has also had to face the unexpected curveball of being unable to walk for a month. Before she was an actor, Lynette was a professional dancer. Years of squeezing her feet into ballet shoes and dancing en pointe had ruined her feet.
She went to the surgeon about her foot pain and a few weeks later, she had realignment surgery.
“I went to see the surgeon, and he said, ‘Oh, my God, how have you been standing up all these years?’” she laughs.
“The first month of getting the house ready, I was scooting around on my backside from room to room.”
Slowing down and looking back
But being forced to slow down gave her the chance to sit and reflect on the incredible life she had lived in her home – one filled with magical fairy birthdays and wild teen parties – and to realise there are so many memories still waiting to be made in her next chapter.
“It’s been quite an emotional journey, packing my life and all these lovely memories into boxes,” she reflects.
“As anyone who has had to pack up their family home knows, you see your life flashing before you. I’m nervously excited about the next unknown stage of this adventure.”
Part of that phase is opening herself up to the possibility of new love. When Lynette was last on the dating scene, people met their partners the old-fashioned way – in a bar or via friends.
Now she’s entering the strange new world of online dating. Though she’s happy on her own, she admits she wouldn’t say no if the right person came along.
“It’s bizarre,” she admits.
“I’m going back to those dating years with all the nerves, excitement and the possibility of falling in love. It’s good to feel alive. “I’m open to where the universe will take me. I’m really happy with my life, but life is all about love, isn’t it?”
