| Billie Ashford | |||||||||
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| Home and Away character | |||||||||
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| Portrayed by | Tessa de Josselin | ||||||||
| Duration | 2015–2017 | ||||||||
| First appearance | 27 April 2015 | ||||||||
| Last appearance | 15 February 2017 | ||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||
| Introduced by | Lucy Addario | ||||||||
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Belinda "Billie" Ashford is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Home and Away, played by Tessa de Josselin. The actress was first pictured on set in November 2014, before it was announced the following year that she had joined the cast as the younger sister of established character Martin Ashford (George Mason). De Josselin shot her first scenes in a cemetery on the Central Coast. She made her first appearance during the episode broadcast on 27 April 2015. The actress departed the show at the end of her guest stint, but she was later asked back by the producers and she became part of the regular cast.
Billie is portrayed as a feisty, upfront, "tomboy surfer". Bille's introductory storylines focused on her reunion with her brother Ash and a brief casual relationship with Kyle Braxton (Nic Westaway). Later storylines saw Billie develop an infatuation with Nate Cooper (Kyle Pryor) after he saved her life. She became jealous of his relationship with Kat Chapman (Pia Miller) and tried to ruin her career. As the storyline progressed, Billie accused Nate of assaulting her, leading to his arrest. The storyline was criticised by Rosa Walling-Wefelmeyer of The F-Word, who thought it could potentially reinforce harmful stereotypes about victims of sexual violence.
Billie was then accused of burning down Leah Patterson-Baker's (Ada Nicodemou) house, despite helping to save three of its occupants and sustaining serious burns. Following a brief departure, Billie returned to Summer Bay for her court appearance. Billie's early storylines have led her to be called "unhinged", "troublesome" and "the Bay's bad girl" by critics. Billie was later raped by Mick Jennings (Kristian Schmid) and became pregnant with his child. She also had a relationship with a then seventeen year old VJ Patterson (Matt Little). Shortly after giving birth to her daughter, Luc, Billie was diagnosed with terminal cancer and she died on 15 February 2017.