Melle Stewart is a highly respected well-known Australian actress who is acclaimed for her performances both on stage and, notably, on television.
Melle Stewart Career and Education
Stewart’s WAAPA education was the foundation for a career involving a range of significant productions. On the small screen, she has played Home and Away in an Australian soap. Yet much of her career has involved musical theatre and stage work, in which her singing and dancing talent came to the fore. She has worked on large stage productions including Mamma Mia! Kiss Me, Kate (which she starred in just before a medical emergency in 2021), the Menier’s Assassins, and A Damsel in Distress at Chichester Festival Theatre. She also professionally narrated audiobooks before her illness.
Melle Stewart Husband
Melle Stewart was also wed to Australian actor and singer Ben Lewis, who starred in the lead role in Love Never Dies. The two’s relationship began decades ago when they were both students at WAAPA during the late 1990s, with their passion for the field eventually developing into a lifelong union. They were in a relationship by the early 2000s and preferred to keep their personal lives out of the public eye. Their fortunes changed for the worse in June 2021 when, at the age of 40.
Melle Stewart Health Condition
Melle fell victim to a near-fatal stroke in their home in London. This medical calamity turned out to be Vaccine-Induced Thrombocytopenic Thrombosis (VITT), an extremely rare side effect of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, which she was a huge proponent of. She underwent an emergency surgery, involving the removal of a portion of her skull to provide relief from pressure, and was kept in an induced coma for several weeks before spending months in intensive care. Her recovery took around nine months in the hospital and extensive rehabilitation to learn to do basic things again, like walking, speaking, and moving her right arm and hand.
Melle Stewart Interview in 2023
In an interview in 2023, Melle Stewart spoke of her mourning over her career losses, saying, “I’m grieving for the theatre and won’t dance again. I’m not acting anymore, and I’m grieving all of that, and I have to accept that.”
