Jacqui Purvis told Yahoo Lifestyle that she needed to leave the series to pursue her international dreams.

Home and Away fans are in mourning over the departure of Jacqui Purvis, aka Felicity Newman from the show, after Felicity collapsed during Monday night’s episode. The latest promo for the long-running soap shows that she isn’t going to wake up.

Jacqui Purvis told Yahoo Lifestyle that she absolutely loved her time working on the show, but it was the right time for her to depart the soap. “I’ve had an incredible time on the show. Some of the best years of my life,” she said. “However, I knew I wanted an international career, so, I had to make the decision to leave and take the plunge.”

Felicity has been a fan favourite character since she arrived in the Bay three years ago as the unpredictable and erratic younger sister of police officer Cash Newman. Over the years, despite all the drama Summer Bay threw her way, she persevered, went into business with Mackenzie Booth, and of course had one of the best Summer Bay love stories of recent years with Tane Parata, despite the two ending their marriage earlier this year.

In Monday’s episode, spirits were high as Felicity pulled off a surprise engagement party for her brother and his new fiancée Eden Fowler. But it was later at Salt, when only a few people remained kicking on that Flick’s vision got blurry and she promptly collapsed.

The promo for upcoming episodes features Cash and Tane by Felicity’s bedside, with Tane encouraging Cash to eventually turn off her life support. The show hasn’t confirmed yet what caused the collapse, but it’s assumed it’ll be revealed in tonight’s episode.

Home and Away fans mourn Felicity: ‘Going to miss her’

“I’m going to miss her. She was the right mix of beautiful, cheeky, annoying, smart, vulnerable, loving, caring and painful all rolled into one. Good luck on whatever you do next. Hoping to see you back on a screen soon,” another fan said. “She is a great actress and played her part very well,” another agreed.

“This is so sad… I’m in tears watching it,” someone else commented. “So sad, I was bawling,” another agreed.

“I knew she was going to die but didn’t know it was this way, so that was a good shock for once! Gonna miss her beautiful big smile,” another fan said.

“It’s going to be very teary this week.. .when Cash has to make that hard choice to turn the machine off,” another sadly said.

Some fans felt a bit ripped off the death wasn’t as dramatic as they hoped for

A fan theory had previously stated that Felicity could be the victim of a River Boys revenge act gone wrong, and that the boys would try to shoot at Cash but miss and hit Felicity. Some fans were hoping for something a little bit more dramatic for Felicity’s final scenes.

“Wasn’t expecting this. We all thought she was going to be shot,” someone said. “I didn’t think she was going to be killed off this way, I thought she was going to be shot, going to miss you Felicity,” another fan commented.

Others however, were impressed with how the scenes rolled out.

“I’m glad she wasn’t murdered she died of natural causes, a different storyline for once,” one person said. “I’m glad she didn’t get shot,” another agreed.

“I love Home & Away, but I doubt I will be able to watch this week, too powerful and too sad, it’s too close to home,” another fan said.