Home and Away Angel star now – divorce, co-star feud and millionaire inventor

Home and Away fans will remember Angel Parrish as one of the Channel 5 soap’s most loved characters from when she signed up in 1993.

Angel was best known for her romance with Shane Parrish, played by Dieter Brummer, and they quickly soared to fame as one of the show’s most loved couples.

Melissa scooped a whopping seven Logie Award nominations for her role before leaving the soap in 1997 and moving from Australia to Los Angeles.

READ MORE: Home and Away real bust-ups – brutal hammer assault, police officer attack and sex crime

She’s now appeared on everything from Friends to Grey’s Anatomy.

But what about her life away from the cameras?

Bitter divorce

Melissa married Chilean furniture designer and film director Claudio Dabed in 2000, but the pair went their separate ways in 2011.

After her first marriage broke down, Melissa went on to marry French businessman Jean David Blanc, with whom she welcomed two sons – Raphael and Solal.

But the five-year marriage came to an end in 2016, leaving her with nothing.

She explained to Stella magazine: “I was left with nothing… So I said, 'OK – what do you have?' I’ve got beautiful jewellery and designer clothes. And I just sold absolutely everything.

"I wouldn’t take work because I didn’t want to leave my babies. I mean, once you’ve lost it all, you really know what you need. Trust me."

Melissa claimed Blanc attacked her in 2016, “slamming her head into a metal coat rack”.

She showed photos of bruising to her eye and wrists and claimed Blanc sent her cruel text messages which said she was “destroying” their youngest son by breastfeeding him.

Melissa also accused Blanc of hiring private detectives to spy on and “disturb” her.

Blanc strongly denied the allegations, but in 2016 he faced French court over the allegations. Both he and Melissa were convicted of assaulting each other following the alleged domestic dispute.

They both later appealed.

Good Wife star Melissa claimed to Australia’s Sunday Night show at the time: “It started with him on top of me, with my arms locked above my head.

“I just tried to fight for myself, which made him more angry. And he pushed me into the door and then struck my face and I hit the wall and fell to the floor. He stood over me and said, 'Now you're a real actress.’”

Millionaire inventor

In a huge career turnaround, Melissa decided to launch her own business in 2010 alongside partner Kara Harshbarger.

The pair invented a device called Style Snaps, otherwise known as Hemming My Way, which allows trouser wearers to stop their pants trailing on the streets by providing an easy way to shorten the hem.

Speaking about launching the product, Kara explained: “One day over coffee, Melissa shared her idea for an invention. She had just been to New York City and was annoyed by a problem familiar to all women: her long hem dragging up and down the Big Apple sidewalks.

"This was 2008: enough is enough! So we brainstormed, drank more coffee, brainstormed, got the jitters, and wondered if we were out of our minds – what did we know about inventing?"

But the product invention paid off, and raked in millions on platforms like Amazon and QVC.

Melissa told Live magazine: “I’m not just an actress, I’m a multi-million pound inventor.

“I now have three patents. The other two I can’t talk about because they’re top secret.”

She said the Style Snaps brought in $15million (£12.3million) in just 10 months.

Co-star feud

Things weren’t all rosy behind the scenes for Melissa and her on-screen beau Dieter Brummer, who died in July 2021.

Dieter said he and Melissa clashed so much behind the scenes that he begged bosses to kill off his character.

Speaking to Woman’s Day, he said: “We may have been love interests on the show but the chemistry was far from real!

“Mel was incredibly ambitious right from the outset. I think she wanted to be the next Kylie Minogue.

“She was a big fan and she aspired to be a big star just like Kylie. I don’t think she had much time for the cast of Home and Away."

Ray Meagher, who plays Alf Stewart on the soap, said of their relationship: “I'm not sure that they got on personally 100 per cent, 100 per cent of the time".

Rollerskating champ

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Melissa confessed to a very odd talent in her youth while preparing to portray a burlesque dancer in 2017 flick The Butterfly Tree.

It turns out that before finding fame in Home and Away, she was a champion roller-skater.

Speaking to The Today Show, she explained: “I had to learn to be a burlesque dancer… it's difficult.

“I was a skating champion way back in the day so I didn't have to prepare too much for that.

“But being a burlesque dancer on roller skates, that's a whole other twist.”

Melissa won bronze and silver medals in the 1989 and 1990 National Championships, doing artistic roller skating, and again at the 1991 Junior World Championship.

She explained: “I was competing in the junior worlds and the national titles and then I auditioned for a TV show in Australia.

“I went straight from the rink to being the star of a TV show when I was 16 and I left the skating behind but it's like riding a bike – it's always with you.”

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