Inside Rowena Wallace's spectacular fall from TV's best paid star to public ... trends now
Rowena Wallace was once the highest paid television star in Australia.
In the 1980s, she ruled the small screen playing the conniving Patricia 'Pat the Rat' Hamilton in Sons & Daughters.
However, her life became plagued with troubles after she exited the Australian soap in 1985, with the star battling everything from depression and addiction to financial woes and even fraud charges.
'My career in TV went in reverse to most other actors. I started at the top and worked my way down,' she told Daily Mail Australia.
'I went from TV's biggest earner to broke, living in government housing.'
Sitting in Joh Bailey's hair salon in Double Bay on a sunny afternoon as the master hairdresser transforms the now 76-year-old back to her old character, Pat the Rat, Wallace is speaking frankly about her past - and the future.
'You must never give up. This I have finally learned. This new show, which is like Vera meets Ironside, and proves it's never too late.'
EXCLUSIVE: Rowena Wallace went from Australia's highest-paid actress to living in public housing
In the 1980s, Wallace ruled the small screen playing the conniving Patricia 'Pat the Rat' Hamilton in Sons & Daughters
At the peak of Sons & Daughters fame, Rowena was taking home over $5,000 a week - a record at the time for an Australian star.
'The moment I read for the character of Pat The Rat I wanted to play her,' Wallace explained.
'Her underlying vulnerable traits, stood out to me ... I was in many ways like her in real life. Her foibles and vulnerability and addictions were me.'
In 1984, she became the first soap star to take home a Gold Logie award.
A young Rowena is pictured in the 1970s during an appearance on Prisoner
At the peak of Sons & Daughters fame, Rowena was taking home over $5,000 a week - a record at the time for an Australian star
She left the popular series a year later with dreams of a film career, but ended up returning to the soap in 1987 for its final season.
'The end of the fourth year of the hit show, I became entrenched in a lot of trouble,' she admits.
Behind all the fame and fortune, Rowena was struggling with mental health issues and a reliance on prescription medication.
'The public and many of my co-stars never knew that just to get through each show I endured crippling back pain and anxiety and depression. I became a pill popping addict,' she says.
As her acting career dwindled throughout the '90s and 2000s, the star found herself on the disability pension and deep in debt.
'The end of the fourth year of the hit show, I became entrenched in a lot of trouble,' she admits
In 2005, the embattled actress was charged with social security fraud after continuing to collect a disability pension whilst appearing on shows like All Saints and Home and Away.
'If you are used to having a lot of money, which she had during her heyday, you
