McLeod’s Daughters and Home and Away actor Rachael Carpani has died, aged 45, her family has announced.
A statement from her parents, shared by her sister on Instagram on Monday, said that the actor had “unexpectedly but peacefully passed away after a long battle with chronic illness in the early hours of Sunday 7th December”. Her exact cause of death was not made public.
Carpani was best known for her role as Jodi Fountain on the long-running Australian TV series McLeod’s Daughters, for which she was nominated for two Logie awards. More recently, she joined the cast of Home and Away, playing mysterious Summer Bay newcomer Claudia Salini.
McLeod’s Daughters star Bridie Carter posted an emotional tribute to her former co-star after the news broke on Monday, describing her as the “baby of the MD family”.
“This is the wrong order of things. We are better people for having the privilege of sharing time with you,” Carter wrote on Instagram. “May your blessed spirit, so vivid, so full of life, laughter, joy, generosity, unique talent, energy, fervour, intelligence, resilience, courage and great humour, and a gentle humility, may you rest in peace.”
Matt Passmore, who co-starred with Carpani on McLeod’s Daughters and later US series Against the Wall, wrote on Instagram: “Farewell my friend. All the love I have to the Carpanis, friends and family. The greatest gift you gave was knowing you.”
Carpani got her start as an actor with bit parts on All Saints and Home and Away, before landing her breakthrough role as teenager Jodi Fountain on McLeod’s Daughters in 2001. The character became a fan favourite, and in 2007 Carpani was nominated for a Gold Logie.
But she struggled with the attention that came with fame, telling Stellar magazine in 2024 that she had gone to her agent and threatened to quit if she wasn’t sent to “the acting equivalent of Siberia. I said: ‘I don’t want to be famous! Earning a living would be nice. I adore ‘action’ to ‘cut’, but everything else – the networking, the hobnobbing, the dealing with sleazy directors – I just don’t want any of it.’”
Carpani moved to Hollywood, where she was unknown, and worked her way up from smaller parts on NCIS Los Angeles and The Glades, eventually landing the lead in family drama series Against The Wall, and a role alongside Ben Affleck in 2020 basketball drama Finding the Way Back.
In 2024, after she returned to Australia, she was cast in the recurring role of Claudia Salini in Home and Away. “It was one of the most enjoyable times I’ve ever had on set,” she told The Morning Show at the time. “It’s one of the first jobs back here in Australia I’ve done, and so it was a really lovely way to re-enter the industry.”
It was also to be her final role.
Carpani had previously spoken about her long battle with endometriosis, a chronic inflammatory condition causing tissue from the endometrium to grow in different parts of the body. In 2021, she posted on Instagram about her experience of endometriosis and the related condition of adenomyosis, saying she had dealt with chronic pain since she was 13, “white-knuckling it” before finally being diagnosed in her mid-30s. “I would make it to birthday parties, weddings and special events like it was climbing Mt Everest, smile plastered on my face – while my poor body was in so much pain it just wanted to crumple,” she wrote.
In a video on Instagram, she said a recent surgery had been transformative, reducing her pain to a manageable level: “I feel normal,” she said.
Carpani was outspoken about endometriosis and the failures of the medical system, saying Australia was “woefully, woefully behind when it comes to women’s health”.
She also posted frequently on Instagram about domestic violence, #MeToo, Indigenous issues, and the war on Gaza.
In their statement on Monday, Carpani’s parents said the funeral on 19 December would be a private event. “The family requests privacy at this very difficult time and will be making no further statements.”
