Lynne McGranger is preparing to spend a couple of hours with her twin granddaughters while her daughter Clancy enjoys a well-earned massage when we speak. After almost 33 years playing Irene Roberts on Home and Away, she is relishing a new family role, although caring for two babies has required her to dust off some long-unused skills.

“It’s wonderful, particularly because it’s twins,” she says. “If one kicks off and then the other kicks off, it’s like all hands on deck.”

With Clancy now 35, it has been a while since Lynne cared for a baby. After recently mistaking Daisy’s overtiredness for colic, she was reminded that even an experienced mum can need time to find her feet again.

“You’ve just got to rely on your instincts,” she says. “But it’s wonderful. They’re beautiful.”

She initially considered being called Nana, as her own mother was, but is now leaning towards Gaga. Her great-niece already uses the name, short for great-aunt, while her son-in-law has taken to calling her Lady Gaga. Lynne’s husband Paul, meanwhile, will be Papa.

Watching Clancy become a mother has brought another unexpected pleasure: an even closer relationship with the daughter she already adored.

“Watching her be a mother is just the most wonderful, heartwarming thing, and she’s so good at it,” Lynne says.

Living only six minutes away means Lynne and Paul can offer practical help, while messages, videos and conversations keep them involved in the girls’ daily lives.

Lynne admires how relaxed Clancy and her husband Luke are with the twins and says hardly a day passes without mother and daughter chatting or texting.

It has also made her wonder how she and Paul managed when Clancy was little. They were living in Melbourne, with Lynne’s mother in Sydney and Paul’s family in Albury. A generous neighbour helped, but when Lynne joined Home and Away while Clancy was two, the couple agreed Paul would become the primary caregiver.

“My hours are going to be all over the place,” she recalls telling him.

Paul embraced being a stay-at-home dad, and while Lynne readily admits she did not always feel confident as a mother, she looks at Clancy now with pride.

“We’ve obviously done something right because she’s wonderful,” she says.

Stepping away from the regular demands of Home and Away has made room for these new family experiences, and Lynne is candid when asked whether she misses her old routine.

“Of course, I miss the people. Of course, I miss the socialising,” she says. “But I do not miss the long hours.”

Learning lines for demanding storylines felt like “cramming for an exam every night”, often followed by a 4.30am alarm and an early start at Palm Beach. She remains in touch with the former colleagues to whom she was closest, but appreciates having more control over her time.

“I think I’ve learnt that it’s OK to say no,” she says. “Even at my age, I’ve never been very good at it.”

At 73, saying no does not mean Lynne has stopped seeking new experiences. Since stepping away from the soap, she has travelled overseas, gone swimming with sharks and recently filmed a comedy in northern New South Wales. She will also appear in a Sydney Theatre Company production next year.

There are quieter weeks too, and she is learning to appreciate them. Walks with her granddaughters, coffee outings and time spent nursing and playing with them have become pleasures she might have struggled to fit around her former schedule.

“This is what life’s about,” she says.

For the future, Lynne hopes to give the girls experiences rather than simply accumulating presents. Her own strongest memories of her grandparents are of the ordinary things they did together: mornings at Bondi Beach with her grandfather, trips to Grace Brothers with her grandmother and ham sandwiches for dinner.

“I’m hoping that Paul and I can provide our granddaughters with those sorts of memories, so that when we’re gone, they still remember us,” she says. “Because of what we did with them.”

Grandmotherhood will also follow Lynne onto the stage when she returns as Liz in Christmas in The Grandparents Club. As she prepares to begin rehearsals, she expects playing a grandmother now that she is one herself will make the production even more emotional.

The 90-minute Australian musical comedy explores the joy and chaos of Christmas, from complicated dietary requirements and gift lists to last-minute emergencies and the delicate task of getting an entire family together.

In Lynne’s home, Christmas is a shared effort. Guests bring a plate, while she takes care of the prawns, rotisserie chickens and her speciality, Caesar salad. She also has one firm rule for keeping the peace around the table: no talking politics.

Christmas in The Grandparents Club tours NSW, the ACT, Victoria and Queensland from November 1 to December 20, 2026. Tickets and tour details are available at thegrandparentsclub.com.