Last month, Sandra Sully felt a weight lift from her. It was a weight she’d been carrying for a long time, since the night in 1997 when a masked man put a gun to her head in the car park of her apartment block and pulled the trigger – twice.
It wasn’t the assault itself that was weighing on her. Sandra was already over that.
“Putting that to bed, knowing I’d actually genuinely moved on, that took two decades,” she tells TV WEEK.
It was not knowing exactly what happened that night, not knowing if she was believed when she said the gun had misfired, twice. But last month, Sandra found out, “third-hand”, some information about the police investigation into the attack.
She was attacked in 1997.
(Image: Alana Landsberry)
“Anecdotally, I did hear that they found the gun and that it did misfire,” she says. “Which means I’m really lucky to be here.
“Knowing that gave me some other level of peace, because you don’t want the cops to think, ‘She’s blown this out of all proportion, guns never misfire twice, maybe it was a replica…’
“At the time, I thought, ‘I don’t care if the cops don’t believe me, I know what happened. He pulled the trigger twice in my ear. I thought I was going to die.’
“It was a degree of validation. I didn’t need it, I wasn’t seeking it, but it did make me feel lighter somehow. I went, ‘Wow, no-one ever told me that.'”
Sandra is nothing if not a survivor. After more than 30 years of presenting 10 News, she has one of the most recognisable voices in Australia, one that’s synonymous with the news. It’s hard to believe that early in her career, viewers were brutal.
“When I started, everyone hated my voice.”
(Image: Alana Landsberry)“When I started, everyone hated my voice,” Sandra remembers. “And it’s like, well, I can’t actually change that. I can learn to modulate it, but I was having voice lessons anyway, which is what you do when you start this game.”
She admits she was “terribly self-conscious and anxious” about viewers’ criticism early on. Now, even though social media has opened the floodgates for personal attacks, she has a completely different attitude.
“Now, I just laugh,” she says. “Or block. Because what can I do? (A) I’m getting older, and (b) everyone has a view and it’s not always going to be complimentary. I’ve just learned to park it and listen only to the people I really care about.”
Sandra still has moments of feeling self-conscious, though – and that includes when she’s asked to strike poses at the TV WEEK photo shoot. Chatty and quick to laugh, she explains that presenting the news is a very different thing.
“The emphasis isn’t on me, I’m doing a job and so I feel like I can focus on that,” she says. “But when the shoot is just about me, I’m just not naturally comfortable moving and posing.”
Born in Brisbane, Sandra grew up in an active, sports-loving family.
“If I wasn’t at the beach, I was at a hockey or football field, cheering on my mates or my family, so it felt like I had a very privileged upbringing,” she says. “It wasn’t financially abundant, but I was surrounded by a very loving family.”
Although she’s been based in Sydney for many years, Sandra is “that annoying colleague” come State Of Origin time.
“It’s just loud and proud!” she says of her enduring support for Queensland. “I have a Maroons scarf on the desk.”
In 2020, when she was asked to present Queensland’s 10 News First as well as Sydney’s, she says it was “a big deal” for her.
“My mum and dad can see me, and while they always could on Late News, they were often asleep. But it’s my home town.”
Sandra’s born in Brisbane!
(Image: Alana Landsberry)As a young woman, Sandra had her heart set on a career in fitness, and worked as an aerobics instructor before getting into journalism. Keeping active is still important, but currently she’s restricted to walking and exercising on a treadmill.
“I had some major foot surgery two years ago, so that’s hobbled me,” she says. “I can’t run outside anymore, which is devastating. But I’ve accepted nothing stays the same. You’ve got to make the most of what’s in front of you.”
Another thing Sandra had to find a way to accept was the end of her first marriage, to journalist and political adviser Mark Ryan. She says divorce “does profoundly change you”.
“Divorce is never easy, because you feel such a sense of failure, and you don’t get married for it to fail,” she admits. “That took me a lot to get over. And then I had to verbally slap myself around and realise that so many other people have gone through it. You just need to get some perspective on your pain and grief and loss and move on.”
And move on she did. A friend suggested she meet up with Symon Brewis-Weston, who works in finance, to talk about some MC work she could possibly do for him. Neither knew it, but they were being set up.
“We stayed for lunch and that was it,” she says. “It took a few months for things to move to the next step, but I knew I’d met someone really special. I wasn’t looking, but that day he side-swiped me, in a nice way.”
“I’ve accepted nothing stays the same.”
(Image: Alana Landsberry)She says finding Symon was “a delightful surprise”.
“So you never say never. It’s never too late. It’s a second wind, a second chance. He’s been a real gift to me. I feel very lucky.”
Over the years, Sandra has popped up on other TV shows, including I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!, where she’s presented several weeks’ worth of news for the campmates.
While she finds these kinds of appearances “great fun”, she has no desire to take on any acting roles – “it doesn’t come naturally,” she insists – or to actually compete on I’m A Celebrity.
“I get asked pretty much every year,” she reveals. “But the thing is, I’m so claustrophobic, and have a visceral fear of snakes. I couldn’t get into those tanks and caves and then have snakes slithering all over me. I think I’d hyperventilate and die.”
Sandra has always been claustrophobic, but it was only when she took Symon past the apartment block where she was assaulted that she understood why her fear has become so intense.
