Shelley Sutherland

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Michelle 'Shelley' Sutherland was a fictional character in the Australian soap opera Home and Away, portrayed by actress Paula Forrest from 2000 to 2004.

[edit] Character

Shelley moved to Summer Bay in early 2000 with her husband Rhys (Michael Beckley) and her three teenaged daughters, Dani (Tammin Sursok), Kirsty (Christie Hayes) and Jade (Kate Garven).

Shelley worked as a counsellor at the town's Drop-In Centre, as well as running the Summer Bay Caravan Park with Rhys. She was a doting mother to her daughters and served as a mother figure to Brodie Hanson (Susie Rugg) and to her nephew Max (Sebastian Elmaloglou).

Like the rest of her family, Shelley was passionately opposed to Kirsty's relationship with the reformed Kane Phillips (Sam Atwell), who had raped Dani the year before. Although eventually Shelley (and, indeed, the whole Sutherland clan) came to accept Kane and Kirsty's union eventually.

In late 2002, Shelley discovered that Rhys had a long-lost son, Dylan (Brett Hicks-Maitland), as a result of a one-night stand with Angie Russell (Laurie Foell) almost twenty years ago. This put Rhys and Shelley's marriage under tremendous strain. Shelley tried to make the marriage work, even offering Dylan a place to stay. Angie later admitted Rhys wasn't Dylan's father but the damage already had been done and Shelley left town and divorced Rhys.

Shelley returned to Summer Bay frequently to visit Dani, Kirsty, Jade and Max. In mid-2004, Shelley began to reconnect with Rhys, who was now married to Beth Hunter (Clarissa House). Beth and Shelley fought over Rhys for weeks, and Rhys eventually divorced Beth and moved to Sydney to live with Shelley.