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However, despite Dana’s encouragement, it was clear that she was struggling.

As Rose (Kirsty Marillier) went to help her brother pack, John (Shane Withington) noticed the pained look on Dana’s face.

“You’re going to miss him,” he quipped, pointing out the obvious.

As Xander and Dana said goodbye to each other, Xander reassured his girlfriend that “time’s gonna fly by, you won’t even get a chance to miss me.”

“I already do,” Dana replied, holding back tears, before the pair exchanged “I love yous”.

While Xander may only be planning to leave the bay for six weeks, it’s believed that the character is actually making a permanent exit.

Actor Luke Van Os hasn’t been seen filming at Sydney’s Palm Beach – which doubles as Summer Bay’s external scenes – for a number of months, and his Instagram suggests that he’s currently abroad.

Home and Away also confirmed in a promo last week that one character would be departing. The promo teased that “a loved friend will leave the bay,” with the options being Theo (Matt Evans), Dana, Kirby (Angelina Thomson), Xander, Tane (Ethan Browne) and Eden (Stephanie Panozzo).

The remaining actors have all been seen filming in recent months, confirming that Xander would indeed be the one leaving Summer Bay behind.

Xander first arrived on screens in episode 7759, which aired in Australia on 31st March 2022. He and his half-sister Rose arrived in search of their other half-sister Jasmine (Sam Frost), who didn’t yet know they existed.

Jasmine arrived in Summer Bay in late 2017, and we subsequently learnt that after the death of her mother, her father abandoned her and left her to grow up in the care of foster parents.

While Jasmine’s biological father went on to have Xander in what appeared to be a happy marriage with Rose’s mother, Jasmine had no idea, and initially struggled to accept her new siblings.

Jasmine departed Summer Bay only two months after Xander and Rose’s arrival, when Sam Frost left the show for what was initially believed to be a temporary exit, which she then made permanent, prompting rapid rewrites from Home and Away‘s writing team.

Xander and Rose had already settled in Summer Bay by that point, with the siblings taking on posts at Yabbie Creek’s ambulance station and police station respectively. They went on to move in together in the Pier Apartment above the diner.

Xander came to befriend one of his patients, Millie (Zara Zoe), following a car accident which saw her lose her best friend. He supported Millie as the suffered with the guilt, and resuscitated her when she attempted to drown herself in the ocean.

When Millie’s memory of the accident returned, she admitted to Xander that she had been at fault after glancing at her phone. At this point all eyes had been on the other driver, Logan (Harley Bonner), who had been found to be speeding. Xander was forced to stick up for his friend and tell the police the truth about Millie, after she attempted to blackmail Xander into keeping quiet.

The mental toll that Xander’s job took on him would soon be made apparent, when he later attended an accident site which had seen a teenager knocked off their bike and killed by a drunk driver. Rose was shocked when Xander lashed out at the driver whilst on duty, and even more so when Xander later revealed his coping mechanism when losing a patient was to get a tattoo in their honour.

The news that Jasmine would not be returning to Summer Bay sent Xander into a further spiral, which saw another new tattoo get infected, but things were soon looking up when he met gym worker Stacey Collingwood (Maleeka Gasbarri) and started dating her.

Unfortunately, Stacey didn’t believe in monogamy, and whilst Xander tried to put on a brave face and give an open relationship a go, it ultimately proved too much for him. Stacey assured Xander that she wanted to be with him and attempted to give exclusivity a try, but it wasn’t long before Rose found Stacey in a car with another guy and Xander called it quits.

Tragedy struck when Xander and his colleague Jamie (Hugo Liu) were ambushed on a callout, with a brutal attack leaving Jamie dead and Xander fighting for his life.