When Natalie Barr landed the plum job as co-host on Sunrise in March this year, replacing Sam Armytage, she didn’t expect she would feel much different.
After all, in her 18 years as newsreader on the Channel Seven breakfast show, Natalie often filled in as co-host with David “Kochie” Koch. But she did feel different, and it caught her off guard.
“Before, it was all care and no responsibility, Natalie, 53, tells TV WEEK. “Now, it’s all responsibility. It’s [the job] mine now and, to be honest, it’s taken me quite a few weeks to get used to the fact that I’m it. There’s more pressure, more feedback. I thought I was relaxed weeks ago, but now I don’t think I was.”
Truth is, Natalie would have happily remained as Sunrise’s newsreader, a job she loved, had Sam not left. But when the “big boss” called to offer her the co-hosting gig, Natalie didn’t feel she could say no.
“My husband said to me, ‘You can’t sit there and watch someone else do that job. You’ll regret it. Don’t do that.'”
Natalie didn’t feel she could say no to the opportunity as host.
(Instagram)Former co-host Melissa Doyle, who left Sunrise in 2013 but whom Natalie remains close to, also offered welcome words of encouragement.
“When it was announced Sam was going, she texted and said, ‘I really hope they give you this job,'” Natalie says. “It was really nice. She’s really generous.”
Natalie recently spoke to her predecessor Sam at Sunrise weatherman Sam Mac’s book launch.
“Sam’s [Armytage] happy she’s not doing the hours and is happy living a quieter life, definitely.”
Of course, with the co-hosting role comes more focus on Natalie. On her private life.
“I think I’m ready for it,” she says.
Nat won’t let trolls get to her.
(Alana Landsberry)Sam Armytage certainly didn’t enjoy the scrutiny and speculation. Natalie is aware there’ll be more attention on her than ever before, especially from the press, but she won’t let any of it get to her.
“I think people get sick of people who work in TV complaining about the attention,” she says. “I’ve turned off all these notifications on my Twitter feed.
“I can block people in my DMs [direct messages]. Or I report them, as everyone does that in the modern world. I think you’ve got to take that attitude.
“I’m sure people will write stuff I won’t like, or that’s incorrect. But people have worse lives. When they do [write things], I promise you I won’t complain.”
And anyway, Natalie has a thick skin. After working in newsrooms for three decades, she’s heard it all.
“I get hate mail, I get death threats,” she says. “I’ve worked in newsrooms for over 30 years. I defy you to offend me.”
Natalie has been working as a reporter for years.
(Supplied)Natalie lives with her film editor husband of more than 25 years, Andrew “Drew” Thompson, with whom she shares their two teenage boys, Lachlan and Hunter.
Lachlan is away at university and Hunter is halfway through Year 10.
The tough shifts – Natalie’s workday usually starts at 3am – are more manageable now that her sons are older. When they were younger, however, it was much harder.
“I was barely keeping it together,” Natalie admits. “I loved my job and I wasn’t prepared to give it up.
I went back to work in three months because I really struggled with motherhood at that stage and found it hard to be at home with young kids.
“I was up all night, strung out with an 18-month who wouldn’t sleep. And then I got pregnant a couple of years later and vomited every day until the day I delivered. That’s hard. Now, I can sleep through – because my 15-year-old does not wake up in the night.
“I did everything because I loved the fact that my kids could say that Mum’s job was just as important as Dad’s.”
The presenter and journalist is proud of her job.
(Alana Landsberry)Drew is Natalie’s biggest supporter, her sounding board – the person she calls when she wants to download about her day.
“I really couldn’t do any of this without him,” she says.
“He’s so much stronger than me. I might appear strong, but I’m not really. I’ve learned to be a stronger person over the years and through my job. But I do take things to heart, and I’ve learned to try to leave work behind. He helps me with that.”
She adds that “doing stories on people who have real problems” and not focusing on a “bit of narky feedback” has also helped.
When Natalie was forging a career in TV journalism in Perth, she did an abrupt turn, following then boyfriend Drew to Los Angeles. She worked as a news producer during disgraced celebrity OJ Simpson’s infamous televised slow-speed chase down the highway in 1994.
“It was amazing,” she recalls of the event. “I was like, ‘This is how you do TV!'”
Fast-forward 26 years and Natalie knows a bit more about TV. She knows it’s important to connect with viewers.
Earlier on the day of our interview, she was contacted by a viewer who was concerned her GP had told her to email a question about the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine to the Health Department.
During a break while on air, Natalie responded by telling the viewer to “go to another GP”.
“You owe it to people to do what you can, if you can,” she says.
Just as well she took the job, then? “I didn’t set out to be here,” she stresses. “But as someone once told me, ‘Put yourself in a position to get lucky.’ And that’s how it’s worked out.”
