Heartbreaking news: Actor Stephen Peacocke’s wife shares why she wants to divorce her husband

Australian actor Stephen Peacocke has carved out a successful career in film and television – but not much is known about his personal life, and he seems to prefer it that way.

Peacocke is perhaps best known for his role as Darryl “Brax” Braxton in the Seven drama Home and Away, but he’s also been wowing fans in more recent roles.

After leaving Home and Away, he gained a whole new audience as Pete Emerson in RFDS: Royal Flying Doctor Service.

He’s also scintillated as the magnificently-coiffed sports editor-turned-news anchor Rob Rickards in the brilliant ABC series The Newsreader.

Incredibly, both shows are up for a TV WEEK Logie Award for Best Drama Program on August 18!

The 42-year-old actor has been in the public eye since the mid-2000s, but he’s always liked to keep his private life under wraps.

So much so, in fact, that he had became the father of a little girl a year before the general public knew anything about it!

Peacocke has even managed to stay far away from social media – a rare feat in these social media-saturated times.

However, there are some things we do know about the popular Dubbo-born TV favourite.

Is Stephen Peacocke married?

Yes! Peacocke has been with partner Bridgette Sneddon since 2005 and the pair married in 2014.

They first met as students at The University of Western Sydney and both went on to launch acting careers.

They have both appeared in Home and Away – Sneddon played Sophie Taylor from 2014 to 2015.

Like the couple themselves, their wedding ceremony was private and low-key.

But in a rare interview about his relationship, Peacocke said it was the “best day” of his life.

Who is Bridgette Sneddon?

Bridgette Sneddon is a 37-year-old actress and the wife of Stephen Peacocke, with whom she shares a young daughter.

Snedddon played Sophie Taylor on Home and Away between 2014 and 2015 and has also starred in the movie The Black Dog (2010) and the short film Chick-o-Nomics (2010).

One of the few times Peacocke has ever broken his silence about his personal life was in 2014 when rumours began circulating that he was romantically involved with his Home and Away on-screen love interest, played by Bonnie Sveen.

Peacocke slammed the rumours in an interview with News Corp at the time.

“As a couple, we don’t ever chase the social scene, we’re not on social media, we’re not often in the limelight,” he said of his relationship with Sneddon.

“We do what we have to do for work and that’s it. Bridgette and I are still very much together.”

Fast forward to 2023, and Peacocke still isn’t on Instagram, for example, and neither is Sneddon.

Is Stephen Peacocke a dad?

Yes, but this wasn’t publicly known until 2023!

That year, Sneddon was photographed with a baby girl in Broken Hill, where Peacocke’s series RFDS: Royal Flying Doctor Service was being filmed.

The cat was out of the bag!

It’s believed Peaocke and Sneddon welcomed the girl in 2022 but the news had been kept under the radar until these pictures emerged.

“You take it in your stride,” Peacocke said about fatherhood in a 2023 interview with PerthNow.

“It is a bit less sleep, but it is all good.”

When did Stephen Peacocke leave Home and Away?

Peacocke announced his departure from Home and Away in February 2015, by which stage he’d already filmed his final scenes.

His last appearance on the show was June 10, 2015.

Over the course of his time on the show, which began in 2011, he won two Logie Awards for Most Popular Actor. But he wanted to stretch his wings and have a stab at Hollywood, so he and Sneddon moved to LA and tried to break into the industry there.

“For me, I left Home and Away at the perfect time,” he told TV WEEK after his departure from the show. “With any performance, you leave when they’re saying, ‘This is really good’, instead of ‘Oh gosh, get rid of this guy’.”

Minor roles in Hollywood films did come – Me Before You was a romantic drama starring Game of Thrones‘ Emilia Clarke and The Hunger Games’ Sam Claflin, while Whiskey Tango Foxtrot saw him acting alongside comedy legend Tina Fey.

But he eventually returned to Australia – and that’s when the second stage of his career really took off.

What is Stephen Peacocke doing now?

Peacocke really hit his post-Home and Away stride with Network Seven’s RFDS: Royal Flying Doctor Service and the critically acclaimed ABC drama The Newsreader, both of which have been nominated for multiple Logies in recent years.

He has also starred in the Network Ten series Five Bedrooms and will next appear in Nine crime drama Human Error.

Peacocke once described acting as a “bloody hard job”.

“I’ve never taken any job for granted,” he told Now to Love in September 2023.

“Everyone knows how hard it is to get work. It never gets old; I’ve never had a boring day … It’s a bloody hard job.

“In many ways it’s fun, because it’s what you love, but everything’s challenging and you’re very nervous before you do any of it.”