Home and Away star ‘adopts’ daughter’s best friend after father disowns her ‘because she’s trans’
(From L-R) Grace Hyland, Mat Stevenson and Belle Bambi. (Screen captures via TikTok)
Former Home and Away star Mat Stevenson has symbolically adopted his daughter’s best friend after her own father disowned her “because she’s trans”.
Mat Stevenson, who played Adam Cameron on the Australian soap opera in the 1990s, signed the paperwork in an adorable TikTok uploaded by his own daughter, Grace Hyland, 20, who is also trans.
Hyland, who came out when she was 12, handed a vase of blowers to best friend Belle Bambi in the video before cutting to Stevenson holding an adoption certificate and kissing Bambi in the cheek.
“My BFF’s dad left because she’s trans,” she said in the video shared x. “So we did this!”
“He’s always supported me,” she said of Stevenson, “and he wants to support Bambi, too. We’re sisters now!”
@grace.hylandd We’re sisters now! @bambifairy #trans #lgbt #foryou #adoption #family
According to the Daily Mail, the adoption paper is mainly symbolic – it’s not legally binding, but demonstrates the lengths Mat Stevenson is willing to go to be the best kind of LGBT+ ally.
Bambi also shared a similar video on her own TikTok, captioning it with: “Finally a dad who accepts and loves me for who I am.”
Reflecting on her own personal journey, Bambi said in the video: “Some days I think about how my dad left me because I’m trans.”
The video then cuts to old photos of the pair together as it shows Stevenson walk into Bambi’s bedroom and sign the adoption documents. “He adopted me,” she wrote as the pair embraced.
Consider our once icy hearts melted.
Mat Stevenson calls for ’empathy’
Grace has been using social media to document her transition since she was 12. Stevenson, meanwhile, has been unwavering in his support of her.
He told The Sunday Project earlier this year that some of his friends grappled to “get” that his daughter was trans. So he urged them to “show some empathy”.
“Sadly in this country, we have a really high adolescent suicide rate and it’s a tragedy” he said.
“Trans adolescents are 36 times more likely to self-harm, to commit suicide. There’s a distinct correlation between lack of support and self-harm.
“I didn’t want my daughter to become one of those statistics.”
