Former Home And Away star Ritchie, 44, gave her radio co-hosts Joel Creasey and Tim Blackwell a plug via her Instagram account yesterday, encouraging her followers to tune in on Monday when the show returns to the airwaves.

And in the same post, she confirmed she’d still be off the air for “a few more weeks.”

Ritchie stunned listeners back in October when she revealed she’d be stepping away from the show for a break after a “hectic” year.

“As some of you may have heard from me on the show today, this past year has been hectic for my family and I. I have had much change, like many of you, in a short space of time and it has taken its toll,” she wrote on social media.

“So I’ve made the decision to take a short break to have more time for myself and my family to re-energise.”

But a few weeks later, Ritchie admitted taking the career downtime had been a challenge.

“It was a really hard decision because I’ve been working since I was an eight-year-old child and I think that I thrive by having a schedule every day,” the former child star told the Juggling Act podcast.

“I am not good at just sitting with myself. I have done so many great things this year, but it was just time to have confidence in saying, ‘this is what I need’.

Ritchie explained that she knew she needed to “slow down” – but that she was worried what the public would think about her bowing out of her radio show early for the year.

“I’m not going anywhere, and I suppose I’m in a very fortunate position that Nova have been completely supportive. They are completely supportive and generous with saying, if this is what you need, we want you back in 2023. So go and do it.”

Ritchie’s break hasn’t been all rest and relaxation though – she publicly called out the Daily Mail before Christmas over what she described as a “shocking invasion of privacy” when they published paparazzi photos of her outside a mental health facility.

The mother-of-one shared how recent events saw her develop an “unhealthy reliance on alcohol”, which led her to quietly seek help.

“I decided to use this time to do something positive by getting the help I need from professionals who specialise in this area,” she wrote.

“As everyone would understand, this is a very big step for me to take.

“It is a shocking invasion of my privacy that the Daily Mail, through their unrelenting stalking of me, has forced me to issue this public statement, in their blatant attempt to publicly shame me on a private health matter.”