Sam Frost has detailed the difficult period in her life that led to her quitting Home and Away.
The actress and former Bachelor star exited the soap shortly after facing mass backlash over a controversial Instagram video in which she described her hesitancy to get the Covid-19 vaccine in late 2021.
The 35-year-old told the Life Uncut podcast this week that she struggled with her mental health during that period and that she ultimately decided to walk away from the show in the wake of that battle.
‘That was an awful year. I had a lot of stuff happening in my family life, and a lot of things happening in my private life. It was a really yucky time. I don’t think anyone was okay during COVID,’ Sam said.
‘When I did the video about that, if you actually watch the video, it was all about mental health and it was about me saying “no one is okay right now” and whatever you think about these vaccines, everyone is struggling and you need to be compassionate and have empathy towards people who may think differently towards you,’ she went on.
Sam Frost (pictured) has detailed the difficult period in her life that led to her quitting Home and Away. The actress exited the soap shortly after facing mass backlash over a controversial Instagram video in which she described her hesitancy to get the Covid-19 vaccine in late 2021
‘And the whole thing got twisted and taken out of context, and got far messier and uglier than what it was meant to be.’
Things came to a breaking point for the star, who ultimately decided she needed time with her family to recover.
‘I just ended up going ‘oh man, I need to go home and be with my family’ and that’s when I made the decision to leave Home and Away,’ she said.
Sam quit Home and Away in December that year and has previously reflected on being ‘torn to f***ing pieces’ when she compared restrictions on the unvaccinated to ‘segregation’ in her tearful Instagram video.
‘That was an awful year. I had a lot of stuff happening in my family life, and a lot of things happening in my private life. It was a really yucky time. I don’t think anyone was okay during COVID,’ Sam said. Pictured on Home and Away
‘The bullying of unvaccinated people was disgusting. Friends I’d had for years stopped talking to me,’ Sam told Stellar Magazine.
‘I never said I didn’t want to get it. I’m not an anti-vaxxer – are you kidding me? But I feel it’s quite unreasonable to assume that everyone’s going to think exactly the same way and that people are going to come to the exact same conclusion in the same time frame.’
The former Bachelorette also revealed she’s only had ‘good intentions’.
‘I got torn to f***ing pieces. That was someone in a very vulnerable position talking about their struggles with mental health,’ she said.
Sam, who joined Home and Away as Jasmine Delaney in 2017, quit the Channel Seven soap two months after revealing she hadn’t had the vaccine.
Things came to a breaking point for the star, who ultimately decided she needed time with her family to recover
Seven Productions had a policy requiring all cast and crew be vaccinated against Covid; however, sources said last year Sam’s exit was unrelated to the mandate.
Sam filmed her last scenes for the soap in December, 2021 at Sydney’s Eveleigh Studios.
The actress sparked backlash in October that year when she revealed she hadn’t had the Covid jab, and also compared restrictions on the unvaccinated to ‘segregation’.
She said in a tearful Instagram video: ‘I was really hesitant about doing a video or even speaking up about this sort of thing, but I feel like it’s getting to a point now in the world where there’s a lot of segregation.
‘There’s a lot of harsh judgement and opinions being thrown around a lot and it’s taking its toll on my mental health for sure, and I know people around me are struggling – particularly if they’re on the side of they don’t want to get vaccinated, for whatever reason.
‘I just ended up going ‘oh man, I need to go home and be with my family’ and that’s when I made the decision to leave Home and Away,’ she said
‘There are lots of different reasons why people are not getting vaccinated and it might be because of their medical history, their concerns, they might have family history, it could be religious reasons.’
Sam then said she hadn’t been vaccinated, but claimed she had spoken to her medical doctor as well as a psychologist about her decision.
She added tearfully: ‘It’s a really hard time to be in society right now and you feel like you are less of a human and you feel like people judge you.
‘And you’re too scared to talk about your opinion or your feelings and part of you wants to go, ‘Well it’s none of your damn business why I’m not! And there’s good reasons why I’m not and I don’t want you to judge me.”
After facing criticism for her video, Sam deactivated her main Instagram account and blocked all comments on the account for her mental health charity Believe. She has since reactivated her accounts.
Channel Seven later announced Sam’s exit from Home and Away in December.
Her former co-star Lynne McGranger (right) told Nova’s Fitzy & Wippa that Sam was fully vaccinated
