Kate Ritchie was once forced to hide from a school bully in a phone box

Home and Away’s Kate Ritchie was once forced to hide in a phone box after a high school bully poured a can of Coke over her head

She’s best known for playing Sally Fletcher on Home and Away for 20 years.

But despite Kate Ritchie’s successful television career, she struggled to cope with fame as a child actress and was bullied at high school.

On Anh’s Brush with Fame on Tuesday, the 42-year-old recalled how a bully once tipped a can of Coke over her head after she tried to hide in a phone box.

Bullied: Despite Kate Ritchie’s successful career on Home and Away, she struggled to cope with fame as a child actress and was bullied at high school

‘I used to get the train to and from school and I would often get groups of kids stand around me and give me a hard time,’ she said.

‘There was this one day I had this really bad feeling about this particular girl on the train so I got off at the station early and this girl got off at the same station.’

She continued: ‘So I just found the phone booth and I called my mum. And this girl just walked up behind me and proceeded to pour a can of Coke over me as I stood there in my school uniform.

‘I still remember her laughing at me and I just felt so degraded and sad.’

Kate explained she didn’t understand ‘what I did to deserve it’ because she ‘always tried so hard to make other people feel better by not being proud or showing off’.

Ordeal: On Anh's Brush with Fame on Tuesday, the 42-year-old recalled how a bully once tipped a can of Coke over her head after she tried to hide in a phone box

Ordeal: On Anh’s Brush with Fame on Tuesday, the 42-year-old recalled how a bully once tipped a can of Coke over her head after she tried to hide in a phone box 

Elsewhere in the interview, Kate admitted she felt ‘lost’ after making the decision to leave Home and Away in 2008.

‘It was just so frightening. What do I actually do when someone doesn’t hand me a schedule on a Friday afternoon and tell me where to be on a Monday?’ she said.

‘And they were just the logistics that I knew I’d miss. I think it was the other stuff about missing the character and trying to figure out my identity without this other person, that was the stuff I hadn’t really considered too much and that hit me quite hard,’ she added.

As she struggled to hold back tears, Kate said that leaving her character behind was like losing her ‘best friend’.

Difficult decision: Elsewhere in the interview, Kate admitted she felt 'lost' after making the decision to leave Home and Away in 2008

Difficult decision: Elsewhere in the interview, Kate admitted she felt ‘lost’ after making the decision to leave Home and Away in 2008

‘She gave me purpose and a sense of achievement. I feel differently now, after loads of therapy. I thought the only thing I’d ever done of value in my life was when I was her,’ she said.

‘I was lost, and I wondered how I was going to survive without her. How were people going to react to me if I wasn’t Sally?’

She continued: ‘Sally was a great person, a great friend and a great daughter. Did people only feel something for me because they liked her?’

Kate had spent two decades on Home and Away, and feared how she would cope without having a full-time job, but said quitting the soap ended up being the best decision she ever made.

Moves: Kate had spent two decades on Home and Away, and feared how she would cope without having a full-time job, but said quitting the soap ended up being the best decision she ever made. Pictured on Home and Away with a pre-Hollywood fame Heath Ledger in 1996

 Moves: Kate had spent two decades on Home and Away, and feared how she would cope without having a full-time job, but said quitting the soap ended up being the best decision she ever made. Pictured on Home and Away with a pre-Hollywood fame Heath Ledger in 1996