Inside Rosanna Mangiarelli ‘accidental’ career: ‘I honestly thought it would be a short-term thing’
Rosanna Mangiarelli has been a fixture on SA TV screens for decades. But as a major milestone approaches, she reveals her life could have gone much differently.
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She’s been a staple on our screens for decades – but Rosanna Mangiarelli says it’s the career that never should have been.
She wanted to be a teacher, you see. A young Mangiarelli would line up her dolls and teddy bears and then read stories to them.
There were early hints at where she’d actually end up though. She’d also cut out newspaper articles and stick them to her bedroom wall. She’d read those stories out – almost like she was following an autocue.
“Obviously – I didn’t know what (an autocue) was or that people did that. But I would do my lessons with my toys and then I’d get the newspaper and cut out the articles. Goodness knows what I was reading back then,” Mangiarelli laughs.
But even an encounter with Nine News presenters Rob Kelvin and Caroline Ainslie in the ’80s – regulars at her parents’ cafe – didn’t inspire the-then eight year old. While she was “pretty excited” to see Ainslie, she was steadfast. “She taps me on my shoulder. And said to me, ‘Do you want to be newsreader when you grow up?’ And I said, ‘No, I want to be a teacher.’”
Journalism … Why not?
Mangiarelli started an arts/law degree – stumbling into journalism by sheer accident.
She was in a lecture, when a fellow student turned to her complaining she was “so over this” and that she was applying for journalism.
When Mangiarelli congratulated her, her friend proffered her spare form. And she thought “why not?”
It was print journalism where she planned to make her mark.
In fact, she can’t even recall why she chose the TV component of the degree, but it led to another case of right place, right time when the UniSA course held its annual industry night with all the Adelaide news directors.
Channel 10 recognised her potential and offered work experience.
Mangiarelli was confident she’d done well – until the boss called to say that while she had impressed, he didn’t believe her voice was suited to broadcast.
She was a little gutted.
But it wasn’t all bad news – he did want her as part of the team. She was the “scanner chick” on weekends, listening to the police radio for any emergencies.
One afternoon, she overheard the chief of staff loudly expressing his frustration that he had no staff for the following day.
Mangiarelli put up her hand, saying she was at a loose end.
Turned out to be a reasonable news day as she covered the inauguration of the Shrine of Our Lady Of Yankalilla (following the appearance of an image of the Virgin Mary in the Anglican Church on the Fleurieu Peninsula in 1994).
From there, she was hooked.
Fast forward a few decades and Mangiarelli has notched up 27 years in media and 20 at Seven. She says, tongue rather firmly planted in her cheek, at every mention of the milestone: “Remember to write I was only 11 when I started.”
It’s been a rather circuitous route from that moment to taking over from Jane Doyle at Seven’s weeknight desk with Will Goodings in January last year.
From Whyalla to Port Pirie with the-then GTS/BKN (which brought more than love from the community for the talented journalist; it was there she met future husband Andrew Oborn who was a cameraman with the regional station. Although – as she has shared many times – it was not love at first sight).
Then followed another series of sliding door moments where she could have gone to Seven sooner, but ABC’s offer in Tasmania came in first.
It was Hobart, then back to Adelaide.
Then a job as a presenter for an Asia Pacific channel based in Perth – just as Oborn moved to the big smoke to be with her.
Then back to the ABC Adelaide studios in Collinswood doing “pretty much everything” from Stateline, presenting to reporting and producing on radio.
Mangiarelli and Oborn married in 2002 and London was calling. Their passports were sorted, the UK TV station contracts ready to go. But another sliding doors moment intervened when two Adelaide commercial stations came knocking. The couple decided London could wait while Mangiarelli built up her commercial cred – and some more funds – to back their European adventure.
She chose Seven and signed on the dotted line, starting at the network on January 27, 2004.
And to this day there’s been no extended London sojourn, except as a tourist and the honour of covering King Charles III’s coronation last May. “I honestly thought it would be a short-term thing – so yes, this is the career that was never meant to be,” Mangiarelli laughs, before adding, “It’s a testament to a company that treats you well.
“A company that gave me so many opportunities and a team that’s fantastic to work with and an audience that also embraces me.
“I truly feel very lucky.”
It’s definitely more than luck – it’s a testament to her drive. Mangiarelli has undertaken almost every task in the Adelaide newsroom. Even reading the 6pm bulletin her first Saturday in the job (she recalls she was nervous but it was more “this is the task, just get it done, although maybe if you asked me at the time I would have said I was freaking out.”)
Just as the regional audiences did, metro viewers fell in love with her at the helm of Today Tonight when she took over from Leigh McClusky. She continued its reign over the ratings, helping it achieve the longest winning streak for a TV program since the introduction of the OzTAM system in 2001, reaching 700 consecutive weeks before it was cancelled in 2019.
Mangiarelli then teamed up with Mike “Smitho” Smithson on weekend news, while sharing the daytime bulletins, before she and Goodings landed the coveted job of presenting the 6pm news. The pair has consolidated Seven’s stranglehold on the ratings.
The real Rosanna Mangiarelli
We feel we know Mangiarelli from seeing her regularly on our screens particularly in the early and frightening days of the pandemic. She rates that as the biggest news story of her career.
We’re used to her hair perfectly coiffed, make-up immaculate. Today we sit in her kitchen, and she’s sans makeup; that’s her preferred state, “fresh-faced and ugg boots all the way”.
We also know she had all three children, Emma, now 15, Olivia, 12, and Will, 10, while in the chair on TT. She returned to hosting a mere six weeks after Emma was born in February 2009. What she hasn’t talked about much is the hefty dose of guilt that followed. And perhaps not the guilt you’re imagining.
“I’d only started on Today Tonight in August 2007, and then I was pregnant in May 2008,” she shares.
“I was 34. (Andrew) was 36. And we just – like all of our friends – assumed it was going to be a long process (to fall pregnant). And it wasn’t. So I felt like I had betrayed my role.
“I understand that, as women, we have freedoms to do whatever we want. But I just think the Catholic guilt crept in.”
And then came the mother guilt. Oborn took paternity leave and, with the flexible nature of the non 9-5 job, they juggled the joys and anxiety of first-time parenting.
“I couldn’t say I’d recommend six weeks (off work) to anyone and the thing is I brought it on myself; Seven certainly didn’t put any pressure on me,” Mangiarelli admits.
Two years later, in November 2011, Mangiarelli had second daughter, Olivia. She didn’t rush back this time. Then son Will followed in November 2013.
Three kids in under five years as the host of Adelaide’s No.1 current affairs program – to say it was challenging was an understatement. It took an enormous village, a combination of her mum (Maria … “an angel”), a nanny (Tania) and childcare, and the occasional Excel spreadsheet.
“I don’t know how I did it, but you just do it,” Mangiarelli says.
“I spent endless mornings in the carpark of their childcare centre sobbing like a baby. Especially with one of my children who hated childcare.
“Every single morning there’d be tears. And every single morning I’d put on a really happy front saying goodbye to them and then sit in my car sobbing.
“And then I’d put my big girl pants on and I’d drive to work to face the day in the office.”
Mangiarelli jokes she runs a very tight ship. It’s apparent the morning of the SA Weekend shoot when the kids are trying to convince her to let them go to school at recess or even have the whole day off. She deflects the request, points them to freshly-washed uniforms on the line and reminds them to grab their recess food before Oborn shepherds them out of the door.
“Andrew is the CEO (of the home) and I’m the general manager,” Mangiarelli says.
“We gel together beautifully. We’re like a jigsaw puzzle. We always have been, which is really lucky and rather rare.
“I’m completely blessed that we have that.”
They don’t have a cleaner or a gardener. We’re sitting at her kitchen island bench as she points to the grout that she scrubbed with a little brush as part of her “relaxing weekend” which also included washing all the sheets and quilts, and scrubbing the kids’ bathroom to “within an inch of its life”.
Mangiarelli does most of the cooking. It’s almost therapy for her. Famed food writer and chef Yotam Ottolenghi is one of her favourites.
She owns all of his cookbooks. Her crab vodka fettuccine is famed. She’s also got a bit of a sweet tooth and is unable to resist traditional Italian biscuits and custard-filled pastries.
And while her job means she’s on our screens while most families are eating dinner, it doesn’t mean Mangiarelli misses out on sitting down with her own tribe.
“We have a dinner as a family almost every night. I prepare the food in the morning so it only needs a quick warming up before I get home around 7.30pm,” she shares. “That family time is really important to all of us. It’s a chance to check in on how everyone’s day went.”
Mangiarelli jokes that cooking is her only passion.
“I’m just this empty shell without any hobbies or passions,” she laughs.
But, there is walking. She and Oborn walk most mornings for an hour on trails around their leafy green suburb. It’s a chance for the couple to have some time for themselves. Their kids have always been night owls.
“It’s just a wonderful chance for us to talk. And he’s a very good sounding board,” she shares. “I say it’s a great chance for us to chat, but I probably do 99 per cent of the chatting.”
She’s also a diehard Port Adelaide Power supporter, thanks to Oborn. She wasn’t a footy follower growing up but when they fell in love a mutual passion for Port was non-negotiable. “I grew to love the club and the game and have been a proud ambassador for many years,” she says.
Charity work is important to Mangiarelli. While she has had to scale back since assuming the weeknight role, she’s still on the Sammy D Foundation Board (a violence prevention charity for young people) and an ambassador for other charities including the Children’s Research Foundation, KickStart and Sight For All.
It’s important that her children follow in her charitable footsteps.
Eldest daughter Emma joined her mum once a week at Pooraka Primary School as part of KickStart for Kids school breakfast program last year.
“We’re trying to raise our kids to be compassionate and to be kind, and to be grateful for what they’ve got,” Mangiarelli says.
There’s another major milestone looming this year, her 50th birthday.
“Sorry,” Mangiarelli deadpans. “I think I was 11 when I started at Seven … your maths might be a little bit off.”
There’s a tropical holiday planned and she’s mulling over whether to have a big party (if she does it’s “sure to be pretty unrestrained”).
While she’s not at all fazed by the number, Mangiarelli says she’s not an “adult adult”.
“I feel like I’m still learning about life and about myself – especially in the last few months,” she says.
“I’m starting to let go of so many things.”
Including being a perfectionist.
“I’m learning to put less pressure on myself,” she says.
So, with that in mind, would she do things differently if she had her time again?
“You know what? I wouldn’t change a thing,” she says. “If I hadn’t lived my life the way I did, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. It’s been a mantra of mine for a very long time: No regrets.”
And especially not about her career that was never meant to be.
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