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Character Profiles > Sadie Rodwell Emerald Chan

Sadie Rodwell 2022, 2023-
Lived: 26 Ramsay Street
Parents: Andrew and Wendy Rodwell
Occupation: Student, Assistant at Harold's Cafe, Babysitter

When Zara Selwyn arrived in Erinsborough from Cairns, to live with her mum Amy, she was enrolled at Erinsborough High, where she quickly believed that she'd made two new friends - Aubrey Laing and Sadie Rodwell. The girls, however, were jealous of the interesting newcomer and had decided to do whatever they could to get rid of her. When Zara deliberately set off the fire alarm at the school, Aubrey and Sadie pretended to be impressed, inviting her into their friendship group, and into their private group chat about older student Hendrix Greyson. Having learnt that Hendrix was a neighbour of Zara's, the girls used her to get closer to him, even taking photos of him shirtless in the park. Trying to impress her new friends, Zara claimed that she and Hendrix were seeing each other, but couldn't go public because he already had a girlfriend, Mackenzie. Zara went as far as to fake texts from Hendrix, and steal a pendant he'd bought for Mackenzie, having it re-engraved to look like it was a gift for her.

Aubrey and Sadie were also plotting to make it look like Zara had been starting fires in Erinsborough, firstly a small one in a bin at the school, then another in the mail box outside 32 Ramsay Street, the home of Jane Harris, the teacher who Zara had been regularly clashing with. When these failed to get Zara sent back to Cairns, the girls escalated their plan, firstly sending Mackenzie a link to the group chat about Hendrix, getting Zara in more trouble, then setting a bigger fire at the school. It was at this point that Sadie began to feel guilty about everything, trying to make Aubrey see that they were going too far - and this proved to be the case, as the fire spread out of control. Mackenzie had gone to the school to look for Zara, to confront her about the Hendrix chat group, and the two of them became trapped in an art room, forced to climb through an air vent to escape. When Mackenzie became too weak to continue, Zara left her and raised the alarm, and a horrified Hendrix went back in to rescue his girlfriend. Though they both made it out alive, the incident left Hendrix with worse injuries than he initially realised.

Zara was blamed for the fire, but despite everything, Hendrix believed that she was innocent, and could see that Sadie was struggling with her guilt, with Aubrey pressuring her to keep quiet. Finally unable to live with what they'd done, Sadie confessed everything, with her stunned father joining her at the police station as she admitted her part in things. Sadie and Aubrey were both expelled from Erinsborough High, and Sadie apologised to Zara for her part in it all.

When Sadie's parents bought 26 Ramsay Street a couple of months later, she struggled with the realisation that she'd be living next-door to Hendrix, and that many people on the street didn't want the Rodwells as neighbours. Matters only worsened when an angry Mackenzie revealed, in a huge public outburst in the middle of the street, that the fire had left Hendrix seriously ill, and that his only hope of living beyond the next ten years was a lung transplant. Not only feeling unwelcome in her new home, Sadie was also struggling at her new school, and her parents became concerned about her low moods and poor grades. Things started to turn around when Susan and the school board were convinced to take Sadie back at Erinsborough High, believing that her remorse for her past actions was genuine, and that her schoolwork was suffering too much at her new school.

When word reached Ramsay Street that a lung donor had been found for Hendrix, and then the Rodwell family were invited to his wedding to Mackenzie, things seemed to finally be settling down for Sadie, with even her friendship with Zara back on track. But tragedy soon struck as, only a week after his wedding, Hendrix died suddenly, when his transplant operation went wrong and his body rejected the new lungs. Sadie was beside herself, feeling that she was responsible for what had happened, and she wrote a letter to grieving widow Mackenzie, who accepted it, but once alone, soon tore it up in anger. Whilst working on a school project, Sadie realised that the video camera she was using had previously been used by Hendrix to practice his wedding vows. Unsure what to do, she tried to tell Mackenzie's father Grant, who warned her off, feeling that his daughter was too fragile, and seeing Hendrix again might tip her over the edge - but when Mackenzie finally found out about the videos, they gave her some fleeting moments of comfort as she mourned her husband.

Still feeling like that she had to make up for her past actions, Sadie saw another opportunity when she found out that her dad was working on a case to catch Corey Smythe-Jones, a member of a cult called The Restoration Order, who'd kidnapped Harlow Robinson in an attempt to convert her. When Harlow backed out of the sting operation, Sadie convinced Zara to go with her, having overheard the location, and try to catch Corey themselves. The plan quickly ended in disaster when Corey caught them, knocked out Sadie and kidnapped Zara. It was only when Zara found some sleeping pills in the car and put them in Corey's water bottle, that she managed to tie him up in the back of the car and drive home to Ramsay Street, with both girls agreeing never to do anything so stupid again.

Within a few weeks, it looked like the Rodwells might be moving again, as Andrew and Wendy noticed other houses on the street going on the market and got a valuation from budding real estate agent Paige Smith. 26 Ramsay Street briefly went up for sale, but it wasn't to last long, and when everyone else on the street changed their minds about going, so did the Rodwells, and they joined everyone else on Ramsay Street for a huge party to mark the marriage of Toadie Rebecchi and Melanie Pearson.

Over the next couple of years, Sadie finished school and found work, employed by Leo Tanaka as babysitter for his young daughter, Abigail. A surprising friendship also developed between Sadie and Mackenzie, who had moved into a share house at no. 32 with Byron Stone and Haz Devkar. Though much happier and more settled than she had been at school, Sadie still felt a great deal of guilt over Hendrix’s death and the effect it continued to have on Mackenzie, who wore their wedding rings on a necklace. With Sadie’s encouragement, Mackenzie decided to remove the necklace and start to move on with her life, agreeing to speak to Haz about the way she felt for him. Unfortunately, Mackenzie timed things badly, as Haz had already met a woman named Billie on a dating app. Worried about this setback, Sadie was relieved when Mackenzie decided to set up a dating profile and together they tried to find her the perfect man.

Unfortunately, Mackenzie’s first attempt at dating someone new ended badly when her new man, Ed, turned out to be Eden Shaw, who had left Holly badly hurt several months earlier. When Eden was found out during the whiskey launch at the vineyard, he stole the wallets and bags belonging to Sadie, Billie, Holly and Mackenzie, while they were all out looking for him. Mackenzie was left especially devastated, as her wedding rings had been in the bag, but after a few days, Sadie remembered that she’d had a tracker in her wallet, using an app to find its location. Haz and Holly went to confront Eden and get their belongings back - leading to a fight between Haz and Eden, and Holly being locked in a shed - the incident made Holly see Haz in a new light. When Billie and Haz then broke up, as she was unable to cope with him constantly showering Trevor the dog with attention, Holly decided to make her move. Sadie tried to make Mackenzie see that she was about to lose her chance with Haz, but Mack insisted that she was fine with that, as the incident with Eden had made her realise that she wasn’t ready to move on from Hendrix.

With her friends’ love lives becoming more complicated, Sadie was also facing problems at home, when new neighbour JJ Varga-Murphy suddenly revealed that he thought that Andrew might be his father. JJ explained that he’d found the diary belonging to Phillipa Wade, his mum Cara’s best friend who had died. Andrew, who had also known Phillipa, had offered to give her and her girlfriend a sperm sample when they’d wanted to have a baby, but she’d changed her mind when she and her girlfriend split up. Andrew also had second thoughts about the whole thing, with Wendy and a very young Sadie at home, and Phillipa had assured him that she’d destroyed the sample. However, she had given it to Cara, who, with wife Remi, had been trying to get pregnant using an anonymous American donor. Having used both samples, then fallen pregnant, Cara was unsure who the father was, but had kept this to herself, thinking that nobody would ever have to know. The revelation caused problems in the Rodwell marriage, with Sadie also finding it difficult to accept that she might have to share her dad with a sibling. When DNA tests showed that Andrew and JJ weren’t related, Andrew hoped that things could go back to normal, but it seemed that both his wife and daughter were finding it difficult to forgive him for what he’d done.

With things gradually returning to normal in the Rodwell household, Wendy was delighted as Sadie prepared to start her university course in childcare. Sadie, however, was struggling to admit that, although she enjoyed working for Leo as Abigail's nanny, her dream was actually to become a make-up artist. Wendy refused to entertain the idea, even going as far as to put in her daughter's application for the uni course behind her back, leading to Sadie announcing that she was going to move out. Andrew tried to make Wendy see that she was projecting her own insecurities onto Sadie - worried that she'd never had a career like many of her friends, Wendy didn't want Sadie to end up doing something with no prospects. Realising that Andrew was right, and that they needed to allow Sadie to follow her dream, Wendy decided that she would be the one to apply to go to university.

As she went to an introcution day for the make-up course she was interested in taking, Sadie learnt that it was going to cost $8000 and although her parents offered to help out, she realised that she would need to find a part-time job alongside the nannying. Sadie approached Paul about a job at the hotel and he told her to hand in her CV, but he later realised that there might be another way that he could help Sadie. Desperate to split Leo from his girlfriend, Krista Sinclair, feeling that it was only a matter of time before she hurt him, Paul offered to pay for Sadie's course, if she would listen in on Leo and Krista's conversations and feed any information back to him. Knowing that she'd struggle to pay for the course without Paul's help, Sadie agreed, but found it difficult to do what Paul was asking. She did, however, tell Paul that all she had heard the couple talking about was their plans for the future and potentially living together one day, and he stuck by his side of the deal and paid for the make-up course.

When Paul's son David Tanaka died a few days later, Paul turned his anger towards Krista Sinclair. David had died during a fight with Eden Shaw, who had gone looking for Krista, but it had been Paul who had told Eden where Krista was going - and that she was pregnant with his baby. Sadie became suspicious when she saw a distinctive hoodie that Eden had been wearing, realising that she'd seen the same one at Lassiters the night before David had died. She persuaded hotel housekeeper Katrina to get her the CCTV footage from that night and was shocked to see Paul in the lift with Eden. Struggling to know what to do with this information, Sadie finally snapped during David's wake, when Krista turned up and Paul started verbally assaulting her. Everyone was shocked to learn of Paul's actions and he found himself isolated from friends and family, while Andrew and Wendy were equally shocked to learn of Sadie's detective work, and that Paul had paid for her make-up course. Though Sadie felt their disappointment in her, and expected serious punishment, they said that she wasn't a child anymore, and was responsible for her own actions - plus their recent behaviour, asking her to photograph Cara's CV and hiding the truth about Phillipa Wade, made them wonder if they'd been bad influences themselves.

As she spent more time with her friends to avoid going home, Sadie was on a night out with Holly and the guys from the share house, when she admitted to Holly and Mackenzie that she was a virgin. Both girls had assumed that she was sexually active and were surprised as she explained that she felt ready but hadn't met the right guy yet. When Holly noticed the way Byron was supporting Sadie through her recent problems, and the obvious affection between them, she suggested that he might be the right person for Sadie to lose her virginity to. Sadie went along with the idea, asking if he'd help her out by modelling for some of her make-up techniques, but when it came to asking him the big question, she backed out.

Having decided that it wasn't worth risking her friendship with Byron by asking him to sleep with her, they ended up having sex anyway, after a gathering at no. 32. Though they were both clearly pleased with the turn of events, it wasn't long before Holly accidentally told Byron about Sadie's original plan, not realising that he'd been completely unaware. As Byron confronted her, admitting that he felt like he'd been used, Haz persuaded him to hear Sadie out. She explained that she'd wanted her first time to be special, but when they did come to sleep together, it had been completely natural and she had no regrets. Realising that he'd been too harsh, Byron accepted what Sadie was saying and they agreed to remain friends, though it was obvious that they both wanted more. After flirting with each other for weeks, Byron and Sadie agreed to go on a proper date, and she admitted that she wanted him to impress her with something romantic, to make her second time as good as the first.

Sadie was delighted when Byron sent her a dress to wear, and she went over to no. 32 the next day to find the house decked out like a Jane Austen novel, with the pair of them dressed to match. However, as things started to get steamy, they were interrupted by Andrew, stunned to see his daughter in that position, particularly as he'd recently found out about Byron's past as a male escort. As an awkward atmosphere then took over the Rodwell household, Wendy and Andrew found different ways to deal with their daughter growing up and having a sex life - while Wendy tried to be the supportive, cool parent, but ended up just being overbearing, Andrew used his police powers to warn off Byron, claiming his car was unroadworthy when it wasn't. Sadie was upset when she found out what her dad had done and offered to pay for the car's tyres to be replaced, but Byron said that he wanted them to take a break from each other, as he was beginning to struggle with dating someone who still lived at home. Sadie blamed her dad for messing up her first relationship, but their argument was soon forgotten when Andrew was injured after catching Felix in the process of robbing the Eirini Rising worksite. His panicked accomplice, JJ, backed their van into some scaffolding which fell onto Andrew, who was left with broken ribs.

When Andrew came out of hospital, he and Sadie spoke about Byron, and Andrew apologised for the way he'd behaved. He then went to Byron and did the same, telling him that he was going to remove the unroadworthy notice from his car. With that hurdle out of the way, Byron visited Sadie and told her that he'd been wrong to end things so quickly and hoped that they could have another try at their relationship.

Having won over Byron's sister, Nicolette, Sadie faced a new hurdle in her relationship with Byron and Nicolette's father, Victor, arrived in Erinsborough. Though Nicolette was close to her dad, Byron had little time for him, referring to him as 'Vic' rather than 'Dad' and unwilling to listen to any of his advice or apologies. When Vic asked to meet Sadie, Byron reluctantly arranged a meeting between them, which proved awkward as Vic tried to encourage Byron to return to his career in law instead of working at the hotel. When Sadie then asked Byron if she could use his laptop to book some movie tickets for later, she accidentally opened up Vic's laptop instead and was shocked at what she read on there. When Vic caught her, he immediately asked her not to say anything to Byron about what she'd seen and Sadie was left with the dilemma of whether to keep quiet or not. With Byron noticing some odd looks and exchanges between his girlfriend and father, he confronted Vic, asking if he'd been making Sadie feel uncomfortable - she quickly denied this, and Vic was forced to come clean about the real reason for his visit. He explained to Byron, Nicolette and Jane that he'd been diagnosed with bowel cancer and given six months to live. Though Byron was initially upset with Sadie for keeping quiet, his anger soon turned to his father, reminding him that he'd never been around for his kids.

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Biography by Steve

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