A look inside Rowena Wallace’s spectacular fall from TV’s highest-paid star to public housing, addiction and the sale of her Lodgings – as she prepares for an incredible return to television: ‘I started at the top and worked my way down’

Rowena Wallace was once the highest paid television star in Australia.

In the 1980s, she ruled the small screen playing the conniving Patricia “Pat the Rat” Hamilton in Sons & Daughters.

However, her life was plagued with problems after she left the Australian soap in 1985, with the star battling everything from depression and addiction to financial problems and even fraud allegations.

‘My TV career went in the opposite direction to most other actors. I started at the top and worked my way down,” she told Daily Mail Australia.

“I went from being TV’s top earner to being broke and living in government housing.”

Sitting in Joh Bailey’s salon in Double Bay on a sunny afternoon as the master hairdresser transforms the now 76-year-old back into her old character, Pat the Rat, Wallace speaks candidly about her past – and the future.

‘You should never give up. I finally learned this. This new show, which is like Vera meets Ironside, proves it’s never too late.”

At the height of Sons & Daughters’ fame, Rowena was taking home more than $5,000 a week – a record for an Australian star at the time.

“The moment I read the character Pat The Rat, I wanted to play her,” Wallace explained.

‘Her underlying vulnerable qualities struck me… In real life, I was similar to her in many ways. Her weaknesses, vulnerabilities and addictions were me.”

In 1984, she became the first soap star to take home a Gold Logie award.

She left the popular series a year later with dreams of a film career, but eventually returned to the soap for its final season in 1987.

“At the end of the fourth year of the hit show, I became entrenched in a lot of issues,” she admits.

Behind all the fame and fortune, Rowena struggled with mental health issues and a dependency on prescription medications.

“The audience and many of my co-stars never knew that just to get through each show I had to endure crippling back pain, anxiety and depression. I became a pill addict,” she says.

As her acting career waned in the ’90s and 2000s, the star found herself on disability retirement and deeply in debt.

In 2005, the controversial actress was charged with Social Security fraud after she continued to collect a disability pension while appearing on shows like All Saints and Home and Away.

“When you’re used to having a lot of money, which she had in her heyday, you’re not inclined to take that good care of it,” her friend, actress Diane Cilento, told the Sydney Morning Herald at the time.

She was forced to pay back the $30,000 she received from Centrelink, which only worsened her already difficult financial situation.

Rowena admits she was forced to do humiliating work to make ends meet, including a humiliating appearance on weight loss reality show Celebrity Overhaul in 2005.

Rowena describes the show as follows: ‘I left my dignity at the door when I appeared on national television in my late sixties, seriously overweight and almost naked.’

“I spent what little money I had left trying to cheer myself up by buying expensive pieces of furniture, despite not having a house to put them in,” she said.

Things picked up in 2007 when she landed a small but memorable recurring role on Neighbors as “Scary Mary” Casey, but her personal problems derailed her comeback.

‘After my return to the small screen and many comebacks in shows such as Neighbours, Home and Away and Paradise Beach, my work was sub-par. My addictions and illness made me erratic and unreliable,” Rowena admitted.

“After consulting numerous agents, all of whom promised the world, I essentially ran out of bitumen,” she added.

In 2012, Wallace tried to sell her prized Gold Logie on eBay for $15,000 to make ends meet.

Although she couldn’t find a buyer, the former Aussie A-lister was able to purchase her Silver Logie for $4,000.

In an effort to save money, she moved into government housing in rural Victoria and was soon plagued by suicidal thoughts.

In 2017, a loyal fan set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to help Wallace move back to the city where she could continue her acting career, but the star now says the charity act was “humiliating.”

During her darkest hour, Rowena says she considered “swallowing a bottle of pills to end it all,” only to receive a life-changing phone call.

The call was for an exciting new TV role written specifically for the veteran performer.

“The lead is a gripping, layered character that the show will revolve around, in much the same way that ‘Vera’ and ‘Silent Witness’ do with their respective stars,” she explained.

“The difference here, however, is that the star is wheelchair-bound and will reveal a much sharper character with real weaknesses and a ruthless, brutal streak that you don’t often see in these types of roles,” she continued.

After decades of turmoil, things are finally starting to look up for Rowena Wallace, at the ripe old age of 76.

“You can give in, you can give up, but you should never give up,” she says defiantly.

‘I finally learned this. This new show is like Vera meets Ironside – and proves it’s never too late!’