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Guest Character
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Rhonda Del Rubio Rebekah Robertson
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Rhonda Del Rubio 2004, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
Occupation: Lawyer, Counsellor
When Karl and
Susan Kennedy’s long marriage was ending in divorce, they attended a mediation with meeting with their lawyers -
Tim Collins for Susan,
and Rhonda Del Rubio for Karl. As Tim and Rhonda argued over the division of assets, with Tim suggesting that Karl’s surgery had been undervalued by
around 25%, Karl’s pregnant girlfriend Izzy Hoyland listened outside the door. When Karl mentioned that he used to pay Susan a wage on behalf of that
surgery - and she reminded him that it was because she was at home raising their children - Tim said that he would be happy to take that into account,
if Karl wanted to own up to tax avoidance. Rhonda then quickly changed the subject back to division of home furnishings. Both Karl and Susan agreed to
the suggestion of Susan simply buying Karl out of the house, so that she could continue to live there, but Rhonda said that Tim’s valuation on the house
was two years old. As the whole thing descended into an argument, Izzy then burst in, accusing Susan of just wanting to take Karl for every cent. When
Susan then declared that the mediation just seemed to be a waste of everyone’s time, Karl suddenly agreed, got up and left, declaring that he would see
Susan in court.
Seventeen years later, following a career change to counselling, Rhonda was working with Paul Robinson and his wife,
Terese - another marriage that
looked like it was about to end in divorce. Having agreed to attend counselling, Terese wasn’t even sure that she wanted to save the marriage, feeling
that Paul’s lies and need to control people weren’t character traits that she could live with any longer. Paul suggested that Terese disliked those
traits because, when push came to shove, she was exactly the same, and that’s why they were attracted to each other. Having heard enough, Terese got
up and left. A few weeks later, with Paul lying about being seriously ill to win back Terese, she agreed to another counselling session. Rhonda was
surprised to see them again, and said that they needed to try and get through this session without pointing blame at each other. As they spoke, Rhonda
wondered if, despite her protests, Terese enjoyed being Paul’s moral compass, whilst Paul opened up about his mother’s death and how he’d always felt
that he didn’t do enough to help his family after that. Though this session seemed to bring progress to the relationship, it wasn’t long before Paul’s
health lies were revealed, putting paid to any chance of saving the marriage.
Within a couple of years, Terese had reunited with Paul, then divorced him and moved into a new relationship with Toadie Rebecchi. Though Terese and
Toadie were happy together, their marriage had brought up difficult feelings for his teenaged daughter Nell. Having lost her mum,
Sonya, to cancer a
few years earlier, then briefly had another stepmother, Melanie, Nell was struggling with now having Terese in her life, wanting Melanie to come back
instead. As her attempts to get Melanie back, and to sabotage her dad’s new marriage, ended in failure, Toadie realised just how much his daughter was
suffering, and Terese suggested Rhonda as a counsellor. Rhonda spoke to Terese, Toadie and Nell separately, with Nell opening up about the day her mum
had died on the beach. Nell explained that she’d just been building sandcastles, not realising that her mum was dying nearby and that she’d never get to
speak to her again.
A few months later, Nell attended another of her regular sessions with Rhonda, but for the first time she asked if Melanie could come along. Melanie had
recently returned to Erinsborough, following revelations that she'd been escaping drug charges in the UK, then had left town after wrongly believing that
she'd accidentally killed Krista Sinclair. With Melanie trying to rebuild her life, she'd been recovering from a shoulder injury whilst staying with Karl
and Susan, across the street from the Rebecchi family. Though Nell was delighted to have Melanie back in her life, Rhonda had made the teenager see that
she needed to be honest about her feelings rather than keeping everything bottled up to protect other people's feelings. Nell then opened up to Melanie
about how she had felt when her stepmother had simply disappeared without saying goodbye to her or Hugo. She explained that it had felt even worse than
when Sonya had died, as at least she'd had no choice and had tried to say a final farewell to her children, whereas Mel had seemingly just abandoned her
family. Mel explained that she'd believed her actions were protecting Toadie, Nell and Hugo from further heartache, but she now knew that she should have
stayed and faced up to things. Nell then made Mel promise that she wouldn't disappear from her life like that again, and the two hugged. Rhonda then asked
Nell to go and get Toadie, who was waiting outside in the car with Terese. As Rhonda explained how Nell had been feeling, Mel pointed out that it didn't
help that Toadie was always painting her as the bad guy. Toadie said that he didn't feel like that about her, and that he understood that she'd been in a
terrible situation, before becoming increasingly emotional as he admitted that he never thought that, after Sonya's death, he could love someone as much as
he loved Mel.
Episodes Featured 4566, 8749, 8770, 8925, 8969
Trivia Notes
• In 2004, the actress playing Rhonda was credited as Rebekah Stone. From her 2021 appearance onwards, she was credited as Rebekah Robertson
• Rebekah Robertson is the mother of Georgie Stone, who joined Neighbours in 2019 as Mackenzie Hargreaves
Biography by Steve
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