Philippa Hoyland 2016
Marital Status: Robert Petrovski (Divorced); Max Hoyland
Occupation: Lawyer

The third wife of Max Hoyland, lawyer Philippa was soon clashing with Steph, Max's ex, and mother to his son Charlie. Steph had become estranged from Charlie, following a spell in prison and then some time in a psychiatric hospital, but had managed to get her life back together and was determined to reconnect with her son. After receiving a photo of Charlie from Max, Steph was pleased when they arranged a video call to discuss things, but she was surprised when she actually found herself talking to Philippa. When Philippa then mentioned her plans to formally adopt Charlie, Steph became very upset and asked her friend, lawyer Toadie, to talk to her, but it seemed that Max and Philippa were going ahead with the adoption plans and nothing could change that.

A few weeks later, whilst Charlie was meant to be spending a couple of weeks with Steph's mum Lyn in Bendigo, Philippa was in Sydney on business and checked Charlie's phone location, surprised to find that he was in Erinsborough. She flew down to find out what was going on, and was annoyed that Charlie was visiting Steph, and it wasn't the first time he'd seen her recently. After Lyn had brought Charlie down a couple of weeks earlier, realising too late that it might jeopardise her daughter's custody battle, the young boy had then decided that he wanted to see his mum again and had taken the train, along, to pay her another visit. After chatting to Charlie, Philippa accepted that everything she'd heard was true, and that Steph had done nothing wrong, but during a chat with Lyn, Philippa was shocked to learn that Steph was going into business with Paul Robinson, who, only a few months earlier, had messed with Steph's medication in an attempt to get her out of Erinsborough. Believing that Steph's judgement couldn't be trusted, Philippa attempted to get her to sign away her parenting rights and give her permission to adopt Charlie. Though she contemplated giving up, Steph quickly realised that she needed Charlie back in her life, and she ripped up the forms, determined to fight for her son.

The following week, Philippa returned for mediation, which coincided with a heatwave in Erinsborough, and Steph was struggling both with the weather and with the fact that her medication had run out. Things got off to a difficult start for Steph when she saw Philippa introducing herself to mediator Michael Arnold, discussing their mutual friends, and matters only worsened as Steph started to get defensive and ended up bringing up Max's own past problems with the law and mental illness. Philippa insisted that she and Max had been completely honest about his past problems, and so Steph then stupidly suggested that they should just allow Charlie to choose who he wanted to live with. With an increasingly agitated Steph unable to put her ideas across in a coherent way, Philippa decided that she had no choice but to report Steph's previous breaches of the parenting order, and announced that she'd be pressing ahead with the adoption request.

With the custody hearing set for the following month, Steph made a final attempt to work things out properly, and another session of mediation was arranged. There, Toadie's wife, Erinsborough Mayor Sonya Rebecchi, spoke in Steph's defence, but Philippa soon managed to twist her words. Philippa then called her own witness, Lucas Fitzgerald, whose baby son Steph had kidnapped three years earlier, leading to her being sectioned. Philippa was surprised when Lucas spoke out in defence of Steph, saying that although what she'd done was terrible, she had been ill and still deserved the right to be a mother to her son. Lucas's words also had an effect on Philippa, who spoke to Max and they agreed to call off the adoption plans and allow Steph to have another day with Charlie.