Rebecca Ritters, now 41, performed Hannah Martin in smash hit Neighbours and have become a fixture within the cleaning soap, staying on for seven dramatic years through the Nineties
She’s a Neighbours legend who shot to fame starring within the Australian cleaning soap throughout its golden years within the Nineties.
However now, Rebecca Ritters, who performed Hannah Martin between 1992 and 1999, is sort of unrecognisable in a totally totally different profession which has taken her to among the world’s most harmful locations, together with warfare zones.
Rebecca, now 41, arrived in Ramsay Road to play Hannah when she was simply eight years previous. Over the next seven years, she was concerned in some main storylines, together with the demise of her mom.
To today, Hannah’s title usually pops up in followers’ lists of essentially the most annoying Neighbours characters of all time – a testomony to younger Rebecca’s appearing expertise, little doubt. Aussie newspaper The Herald Solar has written that many individuals take into account Hannah to be “essentially the most annoying character ever on the cleaning soap”.
Equally, in Sky’s 2010 celebration of Neighbours’ twenty fifth anniversary, Hannah’s profile included the next description: “Most plots revolved round one in every of three situations: both Hannah was crying as a result of no-one appreciated her in school; Hannah was crying as a result of she was preventing with Debbie; or Hannah was crying as a result of dad Phil was out on a date”.
After leaving Neighbours in 1999, Rebecca briefly returned in 2005 for the present’s twentieth anniversary, however her appearing journey didn’t finish there. She appeared in different TV reveals, together with Coronation Road as Jules Robinson, and even toured Europe with the British Shakespeare Firm in productions of Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Evening’s Dream.
However the huge plot twist got here when she swapped appearing for journalism. Rebecca earned a level in Politics and Worldwide Relations and moved into information manufacturing, finally becoming a member of Deutsche Welle (DW) in Berlin, Germany, in 2015.
Removed from the light world of cleaning soap units, she now experiences from among the most harmful locations on this planet, together with warfare zones in Ukraine and Afghanistan, as a overseas correspondent. Extra not too long ago, she spent two years in Jerusalem, masking the Israel-Palestine battle.
In September 2024, she shared a transferring publish in regards to the expertise on Instagram. She posted a picture displaying her in protecting clothes with particles burning behind her
She wrote: “The expertise was profound in methods I may by no means have imagined after I took up the posting. As trite because it sounds, it was actually life altering. Because of all the good native colleagues, a lot of whom grew to become expensive mates. And to the numerous non-work mates collected alongside the way in which.
“Thanks particularly, although, to the numerous strangers who, within the hardest of instances, opened up their hearts and houses and trusted me with their tales.”
Her colleagues at DW have admitted they had been Neighbours followers rising up — and may’t consider they’re now working alongside their childhood on‑display hero.
Rebecca herself has mentioned her early years on Neighbours helped greater than she realised, instructing her learn how to be assured on digicam and inform tales compellingly. Nevertheless, the celebrity was additionally exhausting to course of.
She mentioned: “I had a good time whereas I used to be on the present, my happiest recollections are with the great solid and crew.
“I spent seven years on the present till 1999 and it modified the course of my life. I’ve so much to thank Neighbours for nevertheless it was additionally tough.
“In school, it was exhausting being well-known as a result of I used to be teased and laughed at by the opposite children.”
