Is Caroline Aherne happy at last?

The Sydney millionaire surveyed the attractive blonde woman at the bar. Pretty, but obviously a backpacker, he concluded after taking in her hippie jewellery, Mancunian accent and odd choice of clothes.

They fell into conversation, and when she invited him back to her home just a few streets away he was intrigued - what was a backpacker doing living in Woollahra, Sydney's smartest suburb? She was making claims - fanciful, of course - about being on the telly. Even though he didn't believe her, she was amusing enough. Only when she stomped off and returned with a pile of newspaper cuttings, among them several pages from Hello!, did Brett Whitford grasp that his beguiling companion was Caroline Aherne, one of Britain's most successful TV stars.

Ten months later, the pair are deeply in love, and arrived back in Britain earlier this month amid rumours that they are planning to get married. Whitford refused to confirm a forthcoming wedding - "this is not a matter I feel I need to share with the Evening Standard," he joked before adding that he and Caroline were very happy together.

Bizarrely, the 33-year-old businessman and computer entrepreneur is now back in Australia, while 38-year-old Aherne remains at her riverside apartment in London. Already, according to friends, she feels uncomfortable as fans approach her for a chat or an autograph. "It's overwhelming for her - nobody knew who she was in Australia, but back in Britain she's realised, to her dismay, that nobody has forgotten her," said one. Her boyfriend, meanwhile, plans to commute back and forth, but both have told friends that they are committed to maintaining a long-distance relationship. As Whitford says: "At the end of the day Caroline has work that she's got to do. But that doesn't mean she's going to live there for ever."

It is a strange about-turn for the troubled star who fled Britain last year to escape the celebrity life, which she blames for plunging her into alcoholism and suicidal depression. At the time she said: "I've done all the things I needed to do and I don't need to prove anything any more." So why then, when Australia offers her peace, privacy and the one thing she most desired - a loving relationship - is she leaving it all to return to the glare of celebrity life in London?

By anyone's standards she enjoyed an idyllic lifestyle in Sydney. From the Woollahra home she shared with a friend, she moved with Whitford into a gorgeous Mediterranean-style property surrounded by jacaranda and frangipane trees in Darling Point. Equipped with security cameras and an entry phone, it afforded her the privacy to work quietly on a new project while her boyfriend attended his various meetings.

Later they would link up and spend long summer evenings at some of the city's most romantic restaurants. Pruniers, where Nicole Kidman is a regular, was a favourite, as was the Bather's Pavilion on stunning Balmoral Beach, which the Time Out guide calls "Sydney's answer to the Riviera".

Whereas dining and partying in London were always accompanied by the whirr of flashbulbs and the fear that her booze-propelled indiscretions would be reported, in Australia the comedienne relaxed virtually undetected. She would shop at Bondi's colourful markets, buying cheap and cheerful summer skirts in shops like Some Flirting, then she and Whitford would walk the stunning coastal path from Bondi to Bronte to dine at the Swell Bar with its fabulous views.

In Britain, Caroline Aherne's drinking had led to a string of embarrassing incidents, most notably her heckling of Sir Nigel Hawthorne at the 2000 National Comedy Awards. Eventually the combination of booze and depression led her to take an overdose of anti-depressants, but fortunately her mother found her, confused and close to death, having written farewell notes to her family and friends. She was treated at the Priory rehabilitation clinic where she started the long process of coming to terms with her celebrity.

She decided never to appear on television again. In April last year she told Hello!: "I've realised that if I really want a private life I'll have to be a private person again. As long as I'm a TV personality I can't moan about people being interested in my life." In Australia she continued to drink - often with enthusiasm, according to a fellow diner who saw her with actor Michael Caton at the Bondi Trattoria. She was also spotted at a liquor store in the Blue Mountains where she and Whitford spent a luxurious weekend at the five-star Lilianfels Hotel.

A few months later, when she began working on an Australia-based sitcom for the BBC, insiders say she sipped wine in the afternoons as she directed the cast.

Yet, with her boyfriend by her side, she kept a low profile and, in public at least, there were no reports of inebriation. Like Aherne, Whitford is a self-made millionaire, who has published several books on business practices and founded eTick, a company which gives the seal of approval to companies trading on the internet which have attained privacy standards.

Questions have been raised about his penchant for self-publicity and social climbing, but his friends maintain his affection for Aherne is genuine.

For the most part the couple spent their time alone, occasionally stepping out - once to a charity event at the Regent Hotel and again for a society wedding at 19th century Vaucluse House. According to friends, Caroline revelled in her anonymity, often laughing when Whitford would introduce her as "his friend from the Royal Family". Her show, The Royle Family, has been televised in Australia, but much of its wit is lost on the Australians and their waggish humour.

The reason why, having achieved the freedom and ease she has yearned for, she is moving back to the country which she claimed robbed her of her privacy and, very nearly, her life, can be found in that interview she gave to Hello!. "I probably wouldn't be giving it up if I had someone," she said a year ago. The truth is that Aherne is a workaholic and, having had a rest and found a soulmate, she is re-energised and desperate to use her talent. Late last year she concluded directing Dossa and Joe, a six-part sitcom starring two of Australia's bestknownactors: Michael Caton, who starred in the comedy The Castle, and Anne Charleston, who spent several years playing Madge in Neighbours. The series is due to be screened in Britain next month. As one television executive remarked: "Having spent 10 years building up her reputation and working so hard to achieve that sort of success, it is completely understandable that she wouldn't be satisfied spending the rest of her life sunning herself on Bondi Beach." While Australian programme-makers would kill to get her on board, her particular brand of humour will always be best appreciated by British audiences. Likewise, she is a team player and her best work has come from her collaboration with fellow writer and actor Craig Cash. Before she left Britain they had plans to make a chat show and feature film.

Whitford has also admitted his girlfriend is horribly homesick. Sydney, with its beautiful harbour, fresh food and sunny days, may seem enviable, but only those who have made the move will appreciate how difficult it is to be away from family and friends.

A year ago, Sue Johnston, who plays Caroline's mother in The Royle Family, speculated that her friend and co-star would find giving up work and Britain harder than expected. She had watched Aherne poring over the rushes at 10.30pm and observed: "She gives such total commitment that you almost want to say, 'Caroline, I hope you'll be all right when it's all over'."

Ultimately, it seems, Caroline would rather have a script in her hand than sand under her toes.