Shark TV present 2026 Exclusive: Lynne McGranger reveals terrifying fact behind emergency airlift to Miami hospital amid drowning fears

Exclusive: Lynne McGranger was by no means frightened of getting within the water with sharks – she all the time knew it might be the “gadgets” that precipitated her issues.

But nobody might have predicted her struggles with know-how would result in a scary brush with drowning that noticed her airlifted to a Miami hospital throughout filming for Shark!

McGranger struggled with balancing her buoyancy and was pushing the unsuitable buttons throughout an open water dive, which grew to become a matter of life and loss of life when water started seeping into her masks.

Medics rushed to assistance from the 73-year-old, who after being pulled again to the floor throughout an open-water scuba dive, appeared worryingly “lifeless” and “limp”.

She was airlifted to a Miami hospital from the present’s location within the Bahamas for additional monitoring, as shark professional Annie Guttridge feared McGranger would have “secondary drowning” from water in her lungs.

Watch Shark! for free on Channel 9 and 9Now.

“I’ve seen a lot of different things, it’s been a minute since I was that scared for someone’s life,” Guttridge stated.

Looking again, McGranger is in good spirits concerning the terrifying ordeal.

“The cast of Top Gun flew in, that’s what it felt like,” she joked to 9.com.au.

After being monitored in hospital in a single day, she “lived to tell the tale” and returned to her relieved co-stars, however her diving days have been over.

“I’m really not great with gadgets, at all. The phone rings and I answer the TV remote,” she stated.

“Learning to operate the buoyancy equipment was always a challenge and I knew that it was going to be one of my biggest fears.

“And be careful what you’re afraid of because the bogeyman might come get you.”

It was a really dramatic return to tv for McGranger, who said goodbye to her function on Australian TV screens final yr after 33 years – however regardless of the scare, she just isn’t essentially achieved with tv altogether.

The Gold Logie winner, who left her decades-long flip as Irene Roberts on Home and Away in August 2025, has her eye on one thing rather less life-threatening, nonetheless.

“I love Tipping Point so much. My partner and I sit there and yell at the bit of plastic, ‘Go! Come on! Oh, the machine’s rigged,’” the star stated.

“[Host Todd Woodbridge] is so lovely. Funnily enough, after the Logies, I bumped into him and Jelena [Dokic], both coming towards me because they’d won a Logie too. 

“We’re like, ‘Hey, snap, clink!’ The three of us had our photo together, and it was so delightful. So that’s my goal, to get onto Tipping Point.”

Spending such a very long time in a single job is nearly extraordinary today, particularly for an actor, however McGranger stated there was by no means one other second she thought of leaving Summer Bay behind.

“I was always incredibly grateful, and I knew that I’d won the acting lottery really,” she stated.

“I knew I’d know when the time was right. And then at the end of 2024, when I was doing the first [theatre show] Grandparents Club, that’s when I thought, ‘Yep, this is it. I just know this is it.’

“And at no point have I ever gone, ‘Oh, I’ve made a mistake. Just not at all.’”

That doesn’t imply McGranger is embracing a full retirement.

“I’ve always done acting roles, I’ve never done stuff where I’m just me,” she stated.

“It’s very liberating to be able to go be yourself, and to be yourself in the here and now. And that’s what I love about theatre, and to a degree, the Shark show. It was liberating to see myself on television like that and not all dolled up.

“If a small film role or a miniseries came my way, I certainly wouldn’t sneeze at it,” she added.

“But I wouldn’t do another 33 years!”