Every season of Farmer Wants A Wife features romantic dates, with farmers and their besotted ladies snuggling up outdoors, sipping champagne as the sun sets. But when there aren’t any TV cameras around, are farmers really that romantic? Host Samantha Armytage, who’s married to racehorse breeder Richard Lavender, thinks they are.
“Most farmers I know are constantly doing lovely things for their wives,” she tells TV WEEK. “Rich and I will, often, when he’s finished working, go and have a gin and tonic down in the paddock in front of a bonfire.”
This is Farmer’s 14th season and the third Sam has been involved with. The 2023 season of the reality favourite was the most successful ever, with Brad and Clare already having had a baby, and David and Emily getting engaged, as well as Andrew and Claire.
Sam says that this season’s farmers are “all gorgeous”.
“I can’t pick a favourite, because it’s like picking your favourite child,” she says. “They’re all my boys. But there are some really good-looking roosters in this lot.”
Sam, who quit as Sunrise co-host in 2021, soon after marrying Richard, says that she’s “very hands-on” at the couple’s property in the NSW Southern Highlands. When she arrives home from hosting Farmer, she gets her hands in the dirt, working in the garden.
“I love that I’m starting to get the balance right,” she says.
Recently, she even helped to deliver a newborn colt.
“I was a midwife that day,” she explains. “Rich rang me up from the stables and said, ‘Can you get down here? I’m going to need some help.’”
Just as Sam has become part of Richard’s life, he’s become part of hers, glamming up for events and photo shoots.
“I think he loves it a bit much, actually!” she says with a laugh. “Most of the time, we have a pretty quiet life, but he’s not averse to going out and getting dressed up too.”
The 47-year-old says that it feels great to have “a foot in each camp”.
“I still get to do what I love and make television, but I also can come back to the peace and quiet of the country,” she says. “I just don’t think I could live my life all in the public glare. I’ve done that. It’s not very pleasant. This is a really nice break for me and a nice time in my life.”
Having regularly been the subject of social-media pile-ons during her time on Sunrise, Sam reinforces that she’s “really enjoying” being away from all that.
“It’s just so monotonous and horrible, the social media hate that comes with that news and opinion-based world. But it’s the world we live in. As soon as this show goes to air and I’m back on screen, you get a few anonymous idiots writing things to you. I just block them all.”
When Sam’s not working on the farm or hosting Farmer, one of the things she’s doing is writing a sitcom. She hints that there may be a character who goes through things “similar to the stuff I’ve lived through”. Is she writing a role in the sitcom for herself?
“I don’t know if my ego is that big!” she says with a laugh. “We’ll get through Farmer first and then I’ll let you know.”
Farmer has been a welcome diversion for Sam during a “very sad time” in her life. In February, she unexpectedly lost her beloved labrador, Banjo, who she described as “my best mate, my baby and my shadow”.
“I’ve been busy working, so it’s quite good to have had a purpose, because it’s been a time of grief,” she explains. “It’s been horrible, but that’s life. You love, you grieve.”
For Sam, Farmer doesn’t feel like a TV show as she’s shooting it.
“It’s a bit like a rite of passage, where you become part of the Farmer family forever,” she says. “I still stay in touch with a lot of the farmers. In fact, they all sent me lovely messages when Banjo died. That was very sweet, so there’s a connection there that lasts.”
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