Ada Nicodemou has been on Home and Away for 25 years, during that time she’s welcomed a son and even started an off-screen romance.
da Nicodemou has graced our screens as Leah Patterson on Home and Away for 25 years since joining the cast in 2000. However, off the screen, Ada is a dedicated mum and friend as well as an accomplished actor and author. The actress married Chrys Xipolitas in 2007, and the couple welcomed their son, Johnas, in August 2012. Sadly, shortly after, they tragically lost their second son, Harrison, who was delivered stillborn. “That was definitely the lowest time in my life. That was a really scary time, when you’re out-of-body, people are saying stuff – I don’t really actually remember it that well, I just remember being very detached,” she candidly shared to Tiffiny Hall on the Bounce Forward podcast.
“I couldn’t believe it was happening to me, it was like this weird movie that you can’t get out of. It was a horror film. It took me a long time, I don’t think you ever get over it.” She added that her son, Johnas, who was two-years-old at the time was her biggest source of strength throughout the tempestuous chapter. “I think what got me through is Johnas to be honest, I had a two-year-old I had to look after… He gave me the courage to wake up every day and keep moving forward.”
About her romance with Home and Away co-star
Sadly, Ada and Chrys split up shortly after while the actress continued to raise Johnas and focus on her long-standing role on the Australian soap, which is coincidentally where she met her current partner, James Stewart. At the 2024 TV Week Logie Awards, which was held at The Star in Sydney, Ada and James (who plays Justin Morgan) made their official debut as a couple on the red carpet. Ada looked glamorous in a classic black satin gown, meanwhile James opted for a velvet tuxedo.
Then, in April 2025, the actor made her first public comments about the sweet romance. Speaking to Stellar Magazine, she said: “It’s been a really lovely year together. I don’t like to post a lot of stuff about us online but, at the same time, I’m really proud of the last year we’ve had, and wanted to share that.”
About her split from Chrys
Sadly, shortly after their tragic loss, Ada and her restaurateur husband, Chrys separated in 2015. “We will never be the same people we were, and I hate that,” Ada told Australian magazine New Idea at the time. Five years later, she touched on the loss saying: “Life will never be the same again; there will obviously be a hole in your heart. We will always remember that child and what could have been,” she told Stellar Magazine in a 2019 interview.
On her close friendship with Home and Away co-star Lynne McGranger
Ada has appeared on our screens as Leah on Home and Away for 25 years. During that time, she’s developed tight-knit friendships with the cast, in particular, Home and Away veteran, Lynne McGranger. “And we still don’t get sick of each other,” Ada told The Australian Women’s Weekly in a joint interview. “We see each other outside of work, we’ve gone on holidays together. We have lunch together, we go for walks together. Jimmy (Stewart, their co-star) is in the dressing room next door. And he’s like, ‘You two just don’t shut up, do you?'”
The pair even teamed up to launch the ‘breast friends’ campaign in 2022, where they encouraged women to undergo regular breast cancer screenings. “It doesn’t matter what age you are – you need to check your breasts,” Lynne told The Weekly. “Only one in 1
