The one upside of Ally Langdon’s accident

She shattered her kneecap and snapped her tibia while filming a hydrofoiling stunt last year, but Ally Langdon says while there’s “still a lot of recovery to do” there is one positive to the debilitating injuries she suffered.

One upside that Today co-host Allison Langdon is taking from the events of the past year is that she hasn’t had to put on a pair of heels.

Surprisingly, it’s not because the pandemic and endless lockdowns saw a dramatic casualisation of fashion, but rather due to her shattering her kneecap and snapping her tibia while filming a hydrofoiling stunt for the Nine Network breakfast show last February.

“The knee is OK. There’s still a lot of recovery to do, but it has allowed me to wear sneakers. I haven’t worn heels since and I’m not sure I’ll wear them again, so you’ve got to hold on to the positives,” Langdon jokes to Stellar In Summer.

At the time, however, her injury and subsequent surgery was no joking matter.

“I’m really proud of what we’ve managed to do in the past two years,” (Picture: Steven Chee)

“I was basically unable to parent for several months,” says the 42-year-old, who has son Mack, 5, and daughter Scout, 2, with her journalist husband Michael Willesee Jr.

“I was in a hospital bed at the front of the house and the kids’ bedroom and bathroom was upstairs. It has impacted the whole family, and even now Scout will come up to me and give my sore knee a kiss.”

But even the unforgiving hours of breakfast TV and a horrific injury aren’t enough to deter Langdon from her job.

“Honestly, I love it so much,” she says. “I’ve worked as a journalist for 20 years. I spent 10 on 60 Minutes, which was the best job in the world. And now I think this is the best job in the world. It’s a privilege to sit at that desk.”

The presenter took the helm alongside Karl Stefanovic in 2020, when the show had fallen out of favour after a co-host musical chairs.

It was also the beginning of one of the busiest news cycles in recent history, with Langdon covering the bushfires, the outbreak of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests within the space of a few months.

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“I’m really proud of what we’ve managed to do in the past two years,” Langdon tells Stellar In Summer.

“What we’ve done well is hit the hard stories, but we can also shift gears really well. Karl has been wonderful as a co-host, holding my hand through this because a lot of this was new to me. And I think he’s the best in the business.”

As to what the year ahead holds? “The interesting thing is going to be that after the events of the past two years, what the hell are we going to talk about in 2022?”

Originally published as The one upside of Ally Langdon’s accident