Kate Ritchie tearfully leaves home.

After 20 years, the Gold Logie winner last night waved goodbye to her alter ego Sally Fletcher, filming her final scene at Seven’ss Epping studios, watched by her family, friends and colleagues. In the two decades of growing up in the seaside town, Ritchie has been used to seeing many faces arrive and depart the bay.

“But it’ss never been my name,” an emotional Ritchie said yesterday as she finished her final scene after growing up on the silver screen since the programs inception in 1988. “On the one hand you feel this incredible sadness, on the other, it feels like the beginning of the next part of my life. And yet I can’st deny that saying goodbye to Sally Fletcher is the hardest thing I have ever done.”

While we still have a few months left of the delightful Mrs. Fletcher-Saunders on our screen, Kate says the storylines give her a fitting farewell. It remains to be seen what the impact of the 2007 cliffhanger in Summer Bay will have on these final months, but she is staying tight-lipped. “It all becomes very clear as the story continues,” she said. “We will revisit a lot of the history, in particular mine.”

Home And Away returns in January.