It’s been a big few weeks for Sarah Roberts.
It’s been a big few weeks for former Home and Away star Sarah Roberts.
First, the actress stunned fans when she announced that she was teaming up with her former co-star Sam Frost to launch Cracking On, a juicy podcast unpacking “life’s big rejections and redirections”. Then – days later – she took to Instagram to share a personal announcement.
“Soooooo grateful that after five years and four months of trying I’m finally…” the star started her post, before continuing… “aware of my Endometriosis diagnosis.”
It’s not the first time Sarah – who was married to Home and Away star James Stewart for five years before their shock split in 2023 – has spoken about her difficult diagnosis, however this time she shared new details about the toll it continued to take on everyday life.
“Now that I’ve got your attention, it’s the last day of Endometriosis Awareness Month and I realised I hadn’t said a thing. Which feels wrong when this has been such a huge part of my life,” the star explained in her March 31 message.
Accompanying her post with a selfie of herself in a fitted red dress in which she said she appeared “pregnant”, the star – who is now happily in a relationship with Sydney-based cinematographer and artist Jake Iesu – divulged more about what living with endo really looked like.
“It’s meds (the aggressively un-fun kind), tears, tissues, jokes, appointments with my boyfriend by my side, surgery, texts with my besties keeping me sane, family holding me up, and me occasionally pretending I’m festive so I don’t cry in public,” she wrote.
“Hot. Fun. Sexy.
“I almost didn’t post this. Because vulnerability is terrifying and I, too, enjoy pretending I have my life together,” she added.
“But the truth is — so many women are dealing with this and being dismissed, misdiagnosed, or straight up not believed.
“Endometriosis isn’t just ‘bad period pain’. It’s a chronic, inflammatory disease that can impact your whole body, your mental health, your relationships — everything.
“And the most cooked part? There’s often ZERO correlation between how bad it looks and how much pain you’re in.
“So if you’re sitting there thinking ‘maybe I’m being dramatic’… you’re not. Trust yourself. Talk about it. Ask questions. Push for answers. Because the only reason I became acquainted with Endo is from other women sharing their stories when I was fully spiralling in the dark.”
Speaking to news.com.au in 2024, Sarah revealed how a struggle to conceive – resulting in two miscarriages and five failed embryo transfers – finally led to her shock diagnosis.
“I just knew in my gut that something was wrong, something in my body wasn’t right,” Sarah told the publication.
“IVF can be difficult for a lot of people, but I had five genetically-tested embryos, and none of them stuck.
“And I remember, before I transferred the last one, I said to the specialist, ‘there’s something wrong with my body, it doesn’t feel normal to me.’
“It felt like someone had a really sharp knife covered in barbed wire and was stabbing me in the vagina. My insides were in agony.”
In desperation, she pushed for a laparoscopy – a keyhole procedure used to diagnose endo.
“They discovered I had stage two endometriosis and it was on the uterus, both of my ovaries and bowels,” she told news.com.au. “I replied and said, ‘yeah, I told you that six months ago.’
“It was such a funny feeling. On one side I was so relieved because it was confirmation that I’m not crazy. But I was angry too because I honestly felt gaslit.”
Sarah isn’t the only former Home and Away star who is using her platform to raise awareness of endometriosis. Fellow star Sophie Dillman has also gone public with her “exhausting and painful” struggle with the condition.
“It’s a nightmare, because people literally ask me if I’m pregnant. And it’s a fine line because I want to be really open about the disease and I want to bring awareness to it, but also it does make you feel s**t when people are constantly criticising or making comments about what you look like,” the star told Refinery 29 this year.
