The path to true love hasn’t always been easy for Sunrise host Samantha Armytage.
But now the beloved 44-year-old TV presenter has finally found her happily ever after and is preparing to tie the knot with her fiancé Richard Lavender on New Year’s Eve.
The happy couple are set to wed in a small and intimate ceremony on Richard’s 40-hectare property in the stunning Southern Highlands in NSW on Thursday.
The Sunrise presenter announced her engagement back in June, posting two loved-up snaps on her socials, showing off her gorgeous new diamond sparkler.
“What a year…” Sam captioned the photos, which appear to be taken in the NSW Southern Highlands, where both Sam and Richard own multimillion dollar properties.
Richard, a former farmer, reportedly met Sam at a 60th birthday party last year.
(Image: Instagram)
Mr and Mrs Lavender: The couple are set to wed on New Year’s Eve.
(Image: Instagram)Before she met Richard, Sam dated a sling of high profile men over the years.
“I’ve always dated dangerous guys, maybe — but I don’t need that now,” she told Sunday Life in 2014.
“The types of blokes who ask me out are overly confident types, always good looking and sometimes footballers — the badly behaved ones.”
Now that she’s found her Prince Charming, take a trip down memory lane and meet all of the blokes Sam has been linked with.
READ NEXT: See the moment Sam met Richard’s teenager daughters over lunch
The mysterious builder, known only as ‘Sean’
For years, Sam was linked to a non-famous bloke called Sean.
(Image: Getty)Back in 2011 when she was hosting Channel Seven’s 4.30pm news bulletin and was the co-host of Weekend Sunrise alongside Andrew O’Keefe, Sam was dating and living with her long term boyfriend, a man named Sean.
The builder, who kept a low-profile and certainly wasn’t famous, dated Sam during her years rising through the ranks at Channel Seven.
But the pair split in 2011, reportedly after Sam took up a stint on Dancing With The Stars.
The show’s gruelling training sessions and filming schedule, which required Sam to film in Melbourne, as well as fulfil her normal work commitments in Sydney, were reportedly behind the split.
The couple had been living together in Sydney.
Sam has never commented on the relationship, except to confirm their breakup in 2011, when she publicly declared she was single.
Hotelier Peter De Angelis
Sam pictured with Peter Peter De Angelis during their time together.
(Image: Supplied)Shortly after her split from Sean, Sam dated the pub baron in 2011.
The pair were spotted having lunch in Sydney in December of that same year.
Sam confirmed her relationship with Peter on-air on Sunrise at the time, saying that the pair were “very happy thank you”.
Russell Crowe
Sam and the acclaimed actor reportedly had a brief fling.
(Image: Getty)When rumours of a romance between Sam and the Gladiator actor surfaced in 2014, Sam remained coy.
She deflected claims there was anything between the pair, saying “I’m denying, I’m strenuously denying” on Sunrise at the time.
She added: “It’s [the reports of romance] all a bit of fun.”
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Eric Stonestreet
When the Modern Family actor travelled to Australia in 2014, he enjoyed a long five-hour lunch at Chiswick restaurant in Woollahra with Sam.
The pair were first connected after Sam sent a tweet to the star, asking to meet up.
“I know I sound like a complete groupie… But I REALLY want to meet @ericstonstreet while he’s in Australia,” Sam wrote on Twitter.
Eric soon replied: “Lets organise this”, later adding, “Hi @sam_armytage I followed you. Step 1.”
The Modern Family star plays one half of a gay couple on the show, but IRL he is straight.
(Image: Instagram)Sam was grilled about the lunch by her co-hosts on Sunrise, but she insisted the lunch was purely platonic.
“He’s a lovely man, very funny, very lovely, very different. He’s a likeable bloke,” Sam said of Eric.
“There’s nothing to talk about. There’s nothing to say. It was a lovely lunch … He’s definitely not gay!”
Eric also confirmed their connection went no further than just lunch.
“I can tell you 100 per cent that…we had lunch,” he told the Kyle and Jackie O show in 2015.
“Is that code for something?” host Kyle Sandilands followed up.
“It was well documented. She tweeted me and I said you organise it and I’ll be there and we had lunch.”
Channel Seven newsreader Michael Usher
Sam and Michael pictured on-air together on Channel Seven.
(Image: Channel Seven)Sam and her Channel Seven colleague, reporter and presenter Michael Usher, had an on-again, off-again relationship between 2015 and around 2017.
The pair were encouraged by their colleagues, including Sunrise newsreader Natalie Barr, to get together.
While network executives were thrilled by the match, the couple tried to keep their romance under wraps, spending time at Sam’s private property in the Southern Highlands, away from prying eyes in Sydney.
In 2017, Sam reportedly gave Michael the brush-off, after he attended what he thought was going to be a romantic dinner with just him and Sam, but found Sunrise EP Michael Pell was also acting as the third wheel during dinner.
“Michael Usher and I are mates,” Sam told The Daily Telegraph in 2015 of the awkward dinner.
“We had organised to catch up for dinner at a restaurant but I thought if we went out and were photographed, people might think we were dating!”
Private jet tycoon Paul O’Brien
Sam (centre) and Paul (right) pictured at the races with friends.
(Image: Instagram)Sam was first linked to Paul in 2018, when the pair were spotted on a dog-walking date in Sydney. A few months later, they were seen having breakfast together in Melbourne.
But the pair’s romance reportedly fizzled following a fight at friend Skye Leckie’s 60th birthday party in May 2019 – yes, the very same party where Sam met her now fiancé Richard Lavender.
Friends of Sam’s welcomed the split, as they didn’t believe Paul was right for her.
“Yep, you’re right, Paul has gone and we couldn’t be happier about it,” a friend told The Daily Telegraph last year.
“He wasn’t good for her and all her close friends knew it.
Sam and a friend pictured at Skye Leckie’s 60th birthday party. You can spot Paul in the background, wearing a light blue jacket.
(Image: Instagram)Another source added: “Paul absolutely loved the social scene and wanted to make the most of Sam’s social status.”
Speaking of new love Richard, whose identity wasn’t known at the time, a close friend told the paper: “Her new boyfriend isn’t well-known or in the industry and she really doesn’t want his name out there in case the attention jeopardises the relationship. But he is a good guy and good for her.”
