A well-known actor accused of indecently assaulting seven of his acting students can be named as former Shortland Street star Rene Naufahu.

Naufahu, 46, was initially granted name suppression at his earliest district court appearances. This weekend, he gave an interview at an Auckland inner-city cafe, at which he said he was waiving suppression because other actors were being wrongly tarred.

Following a February court hearing Judge David Sharp ruled suppression would lapse on Sunday morning.

JASON DORDAY/STUFF Rene Naufahu has been charged with multiple indecent assault and sexual violations. He has denied them.

Naufahu will face a jury trial, having denied two charges of sexual violation and 15 of indecent assault.

The charges relate to seven female complainants who say they were assaulted by Naufahu after taking private acting tutorials with him between 2010 and 2013.

Naufahu strenuously denies the allegations and says the actions alleged by the complainants were consensual, and were part of the acting tutorials. "While I am far from perfect, I was always committed to making all my students, male and female, better actors by trying to get them ready for actual roles in the industry. This included close contact and intimate scenes. That's acting in the real world."

CHRIS SKELTON/STUFF Rene Naufahu, 46, at an earlier Auckland District Court appearance.

He was having an extra-marital affair with one of the complainants, then aged 21, at the time she said she was allegedly assaulted by him.

He was particularly remorseful about how much hurt that affair caused his partner. He says he's been an "idiot".

"I disrespected my wife. I'm a mug. I f..... up. I'm going through it right now but I've got a thick skin. I was the s........ actor on Shortland Street for four years. If I can get through those reviews I can get through this year."

As a young actor, Rene Naufahu became a household name playing ambulance driver Sam Aleni in Shortland Street, from 1992.

On Saturday Naufahu admitted he was "absolutely terrified" of the fallout of his name being known but said he was primarily concerned with the effects on his family, including his three children and his wife of 12 years.

At his first district court appearance in 2015 he sought to have his name kept secret out of concern for his children, the eldest of whom is 13, and so he could continue working in the entertainment industry to support them.

As time went on it became clear to him that he needed to revise his position, particularly after learning that his colleagues in the industry were wrongfully being identified. "It's such a small industry that most informed people found out anyway," he said.

"I understand this caused some embarrassment to fellow industry members who had the finger pointed at them and I deeply regret that – I've lost friends who I've known for over 10 years."

Naufahu is well known for his four-year role as ambulance driver Sam Aleni in the soap opera Shortland Street in the early 90s, appearing in the much-loved television series' first ever episode.

He returned in 2014 to reprise his role ("I needed the money") and has since appeared in various other local television series including Water Rats, All Saints and Sea Change.

More recently he has taken on directing and script writing roles and is now involved in a feature-length movie production.

Legal restrictions prevented Naufahu from going into specific details about the allegations, but said he would be defending the allegations. He described them as "ridiculous" and "ludicrous".

He had never sought to hide from the charges, he said, but wanted to properly prepare his family for the media coverage that would ensue. "The biggest reason ... was to protect my kids as long as I could," he said.

"We have spoken to the kids about what's going on and set up what we feel are the appropriate barriers and support systems for them and ourselves to see this process through. Also, I have a very high achieving family who needed to absorb this and come to terms with in their own way and time."

Naufahu says he has learned a lot, and says he is grateful for his "stoic" family and credits a renewed interest in Christianity for helping him through what he says has been a tough time that he "wouldn't wish on my worst enemy".

"Person to person, I'm s... scared. I'm absolutely terrified, but overall I feel it's just the process I have to go through and I've got a really amazing support network, and I've got my kids. Honestly, it's not about me. It's about my family." ​