Home and Away star Sophie Dillman shares plans for 2023 amid exit rumours

 "I want to focus on me for bit."

Home and Away star Sophie Dillman has opened up about her plans for this year amid rumours about her leaving the soap.

Dillman, who plays Ziggy Astoni on the show, spoke to Yahoo Lifestyle in a new interview about her New Year's resolutions — and she placed emphasis on focusing on herself for a while.

"My New Year's resolution is to find joy. I think next year I want to really focus on being happy, doing things that I love and doing things for myself," Dillman said.

"After working so hard for so many years, I want to focus on me for bit," she continued.

The actress said that it may sound "a bit selfish," but that she needs to time focus on herself and recharge, especially since she continued to work during the pandemic.

She clarified that she will continue working in some capacity in 2023, but didn't elaborate further.

As it stands, rumours about Dillman leaving Home and Away haven't yet been explicitly addressed. Currently, Dillman's character Ziggy and her partner Dean Thompson are going through a pregnancy storyline on the soap.

Given that her real-life partner, Patrick O'Connor, plays Dean on the show, Dillman has said the storyline has been good practice for if they ever decide to have kids.

"You know, Ziggy got everything — she got nausea, fatigue, mood swings, pain, Braxton Hicks [contractions], all that sort of stuff," the star shared.

"Going through all of that, especially with your real-life partner, actually brings up a lot of conversation that I don't think a lot of people would have unless they are literally carrying a fake pregnancy belly around."

Dillman added: "It's not what we want to do right now, but it's definitely something we want to look into one day. So it's been fun doing all the hypotheticals."

Home and Away airs weekdays at 1.45pm on Channel 5 and 6pm on 5STAR. First-look screenings air at 6.30pm on 5STAR and the show also streams on My5.