TV star Simmone Jade Mackinnon has teased a return to acting after falling on hard times when she stepped away from the spotlight and ended up living in a caravan with her teenage son.
The 51-year-old actress started her career on the American series Baywatch: Hawaii, which aired from 1999 to 2001, and then returned home for her starring role as Stevie Hall in popular drama McLeod’s Daughters from 2003 to 2009.
After McLeod’s Daughters ended, she drifted away from the industry and ended up in financial stress, which took such a toll on her that she suffered from panic attacks and hair loss.
Mackinnon says she has plans to return to screens now that her son is 14.
‘I’ve been speaking to my agents… I’ve been out of the game for a long time,’ she told 9Entertainment.
TV star Simmone Jade Mackinnon has teased a return to acting after revealing she fell on hard times and ended up living in a caravan with her teenage son
‘I really did want to focus on just being a mum. I wanted to give him my full attention and when you work on a show, on McLeod’s sometimes we were working 14 hour days, it takes up so much of your time,’ she explained.
‘I think it’s at least time to have the chat and see where we’re at and what’s out there. It might be time to get back into that arena – if I can,’ she added.
The former actress also teased a McLeod’s Daughters spin-off.
‘We’re still around, the people want it, the people really want to see Xander and Charlotte and what’s happened to the kids,’ she said.
It comes after Simmone recently spoke about falling on hard times after soaring to fame in the early 2000s.
The 51-year-old started her career on the American series Baywatch: Hawaii, which aired from 1999 to 2001, and then returned home for her starring role as Stevie Hall in popular drama McLeod’s Daughters from 2003 to 2009
These days, the 2007 Gold Logie nominee – who was once engaged to Hollywood star Jason Momoa – is living in a caravan with her son after stepping away from the limelight and going broke.
She spoke of her heartbreaking situation on Nine’s reality show The Summit, where she is competing for a chance to win a life-changing $1million cash prize.
‘The last three years have been the hardest of my life,’ Mackinnon said.
Mackinnon (pictured here in Baywatch) has plans to return to screens now that her son is 14
‘And that caused severe anxiety. After a week of back-to-back panic attacks that led to massive hair loss.
‘There was big chunks just falling out so I had to shave it all off. You lose your hair and it’s a massive psychological hit.
‘I just hid. I hid away from everything and everyone for years.’
Simmone took an extended career break after McLeod’s Daughters was axed in 2009, telling the Advertiser she advised her agents she wanted to focus on raising her son, who she realised ‘would more than likely be my only child’.
Years later, in 2016, she bought a caravan with the intention of travelling the countryside.
But her road trip dreams never materialised and that caravan ended up parked on a family property for two years when her father became ill.
In a strange case of life imitating art, the ex-actress later took a job working on a cattle station in Rockhampton, Queensland, as a jillaroo.
After McLeod’s Daughters ended, she drifted away from the industry and ended up in financial stress, which took such a toll on her that she suffered from panic attacks and hair loss
She said this period of her life was blissfully happy, describing the lifestyle as ‘priceless’ even though the money was just enough to break even.
However, Mackinnon suffered another setback when the Covid pandemic hit.
She hit ‘rock bottom’ while trying to keep her online clothing business afloat.
She spoke of her heartbreaking situation on Nine’s reality show The Summit, where she is competing for a chance to win a life-changing $1million cash prize
‘I poured everything I had into it. I’m proud to say it’s still going three years later but it is without a doubt the most stressful situation I have ever been in,’ she said.
‘Living off credit cards, continually just praying people will like my new designs. It’s taken a massive toll mentally and at the beginning of last year, I suffered a physical toll when I lost all my hair due to the stress.
‘Rock bottom is where I found myself. And there’s really only one way you can go from there… and that is up.’
Simmone also teased a McLeod’s Daughters spin off: ‘We’re still around, the people want it, the people really want to see Xander and Charlotte and what’s happened to the kids,’ she said
