The soap opera that is the relationship of Barnaby Joyce and his former staffer Vikki Campion continues. After profusely pleading for their privacy, the couple accepted $150,000 to sit for a TV interview with channel 7’s Sunday Night program to discuss their lives together and their baby boy, Sebastian.
During the couple’s first TV interview together Vikki made shocking claims that she felt political pressure to abort the baby.
“There were people who tried to stop the baby being born,” she said.
“They said if you don’t, they’re going to come after you …[and] … they did”.
Vikki hinted that pressure to terminate the pregnancy may have come from conservatives in the Nationals party.
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“I would do anything to protect him,” she continued in reference to the couple’s son.
“Everything was worth it for this.”
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Vikki claims to have felt pressure to abort her baby.
The couple were questioned about their relationship and how it began, yet and both refused to reveal who initiated the affair.
“I was close to him, I was going through personal issues, he was going though some issues too,” Vikki explained.
“Your marriage?” asked Channel 7 interviewer Alex Cullen to Barnaby.
“I was too long away from home. It is was it is,” Barnaby added of his failed marriage.
Barnaby became very tense would not discuss his family, or his ex-wife.
“Natalie has every right to be left alone,” said Barnaby.
A tearful Vikki explains, “You can’t help who you fall in love with.”
Vikki was asked about the rumoured run-in she had with Barnaby’s ex-wife of 24 years Natalie Joyce. It was reported that in April 2017, Natalie confronted Vikki on the streets of Tamworth.
When asked what was said during the showdown, Vikki responded with a grin, “I can’t repeat the words on television.”
“We both know what happened that day,” she added.
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“I feel like we’ve been through more than most married couples,” says Vikki.
Barnaby is the father to four daughters — Bridgette, 20, Julia, 19, Caroline, 17, and Odette, 15 — and now baby boy Sebastian, although the ex-deputy prime minister recently said the paternity of the baby was “a grey area”.
“I was deeply hurt about the ‘grey area’ comment,” Vikki revealed during the interview.
Vikki describes motherhood as “beautiful”. She says she cries a lot more than now she is a mother. She says baby Sebastian has her eyes but Barnaby’s colouring.
“He has my red!” joked Barnaby.
But the couple reveal the early days of the pregnancy were traumatic.
“I took a pregnancy test and realised we had a very difficult, complicated situation,” said the new mother.
Vikki admits she was not excited by the pregnancy. She was overwhelmed and even strongly consider aborting the baby.
“I don’t believe in abortion, so I knew at that point that I was going to lose my job as the deputy prime minister and all I was doing was hoping and praying for a healthy baby,” revealed Barnaby.
Vikki says she is pro-life but admits the intense situation lead her to consider and attempt termination.
“I tried and I couldn’t go through with [an abortion],” said Vikki.
“I bought the medicine online, you can’t do it in the ACT, I drove interstate. I walked in [to a clinic] and I walked out again,” she explained.
The former deputy prime minster has faced criticism from both sides of politics for accepting the TV deal. Barnaby defended the deal, claiming had it been just an interview with himself he wouldn’t have acpeted payment.
“Remember there are other people in this interview, being Vikki and Seb, so if it was just an interview with me as a politician, sure, I am not going to charge for that,” Barnaby said.
“But that is not what they wanted. They wanted an interview obviously to get Vikki’s side of the story and like most mothers she said, ‘Seeing as I am being screwed over and there are drones and everything over my house in the last fortnight, paparazzi waiting for me, if everybody else is making money then [I am] going to make money out of it’.”
Barnaby Joyce and his ex-wife Natalie Joyce were married for 24 years.
While the couple did not want to answer any questions about Barnaby’s family, Vikki did hint she felt some remorse for the breakdown of his family.
“I am so sorry so many innocent people were dragged through this. I apologise,” she said.
