Rowena Wallace reveals the biggest secret from her time on Sons and Daughters
Actress Rowena Wallace has revealed the biggest secret from her time starring in Sons and Daughters in the 1980s.
Wallace said when she was 35 she had a passionate night with co-star Peter Phelps, who was 13 years her junior and played her son on the show.
“We had both had the odd drink or four," the now 70-year-old actress told the Daily Telegraph.
“And it just happened. I knew I was very fond of Pete in a working relationship and that he enjoyed working with me, but I never imagined that we felt like that towards each other. We made jokes of course on set like, ‘Gee Pete you look good today’ but all just in jest. I blame the booze for what occurred between us.”
Sons and Daughters aired from 1981 to 1987 and Wallace took home a Gold Logie and four silver gongs for her performance of Pat the Rat on the show.
Phelps played her on-screen son John Palmer and Ally Fowler played her daughter Angela Hamilton.
Peter Phelps and Rowena Wallace.
The passionate night occurred after the cast had a weekly drinking session.
“Pete and I, for some strange reason, ended up breaking away from the rest of the crew and ended up on our own,” she said.
“We wound up in fact all the way over on the northern beaches in Sydney, where Peter lived on his own in an apartment near the surf. We were down on the beach after having a few drinks when Pete suggested we go for a late-night swim. I stripped down to my knickers.
“Pete was incredibly tanned and handsome with a body to match. When we got out of the surf he said to me, ‘You probably had too much to drink to make your way all the way back to yours, so come and bunk down at mine’, so I did.
“We arrived at his empty apartment, had a coffee and chatted for a while, then, before I knew it, we were in the bedroom and as we climbed into bed, the rest is history.”
Wallace said the pair did not feel awkward the next morning.
“We both laughed about it in fact, as I joked to him saying you know I am your mother — on screen that is. We both realised it was just something nice that had happened but it wasn’t going to continue and we both accepted that. I don’t regard it at all as a mistake.”
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