Sass Connelly

Sarah "Sass" Connelly was born onscreen on 11 October 1993. Desperate to have children but with no stable partner in her life, Shortland Street clinic's head of nursing Carrie Burton (Lisa Crittenden) accepted sperm donations from nurse Steve Mills (Andrew Binns), Guy Warner (Craig Parker), Dr. Hone Ropata (Temuera Morrison) and Dr. Chris Warner (Michael Galvin); refusing to disclose whose sperm she used. She fell pregnant and married Steve's father Declan Kennedy (Kevin J. Wilson). Carrie gave birth to triplets during good friend Meredith Fleming's (Stephanie Wilkin) leaving party and named them, Finbar, Frank, and Sarah. Declan proved to be a useless father and ended up fleeing the country to escape criminal associates he had, leaving Steve to be a surrogate parent. It turned out Sarah had a hole in her heart and came close to death during surgery. Carrie decided to flee Ferndale after receiving threats from Declan's criminal past, taking her triplets with her and leaving Steve (who had decided the children were likely his) heart broken. Several months later Steve was devastated to realise Chris had discovered he was the father and had been visiting Carrie and the triplets in Australia. This caused a rivalry between the two that ultimately lead to Steve driving off the road and dying in an explosion. In November 1995 Chris visited Carrie and the triplets so that he could introduce his father Bruce (Ken Blackburn) to them before he succumbed to terminal cancer.

In 2016, TK Samuels (Benjamin Mitchell) was approached by a woman identifying herself as "Sass." After being humiliated by the doctor who was not wanting a relationship so fresh off the heels of his break-up with Kylie Brown (Kerry-Lee Dewing), Sass began to act rude in regards to TK's niece, Esther (Ngahuia Piripi). Venting to Finn Connelly (Lukas Whiting), Esther made several insults about Sass, after which Finn revealed that the newcomer was in fact his sister Sarah!