Stefan Dennis says royal family were huge Neighbours fans
Neighbours legend Stefan Dennis says the royal family adored the Australian soap.
Stefan Dennis claims the royal family were big fans of Neighbours.
The 66-year-old actor - best known for playing powerful businessman Paul Robinson in the Australian soap - said the late Princess Diana and the late Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother used to catch up on the programme if they missed it due to their royal engagements.
Stefan told the new issue of My Weekly magazine: "For many years, I was under the impression that it was Princess Diana and the Queen Mum who were the fans of Neighbours.
"They both loved it to the point where, if they were ever away doing royal duties and they missed the show, they used to get the BBC to send tapes to the palace.
In 2023, Stefan discovered that the late Queen Elizabeth - and "almost the entire royal family" were also big fans of Neighbours.
He continued: "Then when we were invited to the palace in 2023 - we were over doing the Neighbours Celebration Tour - not only did we discover that practically all the staff at the palace were avid fans, but almost the entire royal family.
"Even the late Queen was a fan."
Neighbours ceased production in June 2022 after Channel 5 - the soap's "key broadcast partner in the UK" - dropped the programme in February that year, and the show's production company, Fremantle, was unable to find another channel to air and fund the programme.
But four months after the star-studded finale - which saw the likes of Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, both 57, reprise their roles of Charlene and Scott Robinson, respectively - aired in July 2022, Amazon revived Neighbours for it to air worldwide on Amazon Freevee, the firm's free streaming service.
However, Amazon dissolved the streaming service on September 3, 2025, and Jason Herbison, 53, Neighbours' Executive Producer, recently told TV Tonight that the move played a key factor in Neighbours "resting" from December 2025, in what is the soap's 40th anniversary year.
And Stefan - who has played Paul on-and-off since Neighbours began in 1985 - feels sad about bidding farewell to his alter ego.
He said: "Saying goodbye to Paul Robinson has felt a bit like losing myself.
"He is a character who's been with me almost my entire career - three-quarters of it.
"He's probably the best-loved and longest-serving villain in Australian television history, and I wear that badge proudly.
"He wasn't just a black-and-white bad guy, but a smiling badie.
"It was bringing to a close a very, very large part of my career and my life."
