After her shock axing as Channel 10 newsreader, Rebecca Morse is ready for life outside of the newsroom
There’s been plenty of tears, but Bec Morse is looking forward to life outside the Channel 10 Adelaide newsroom. The beach, and family dinners, are just the start.
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It’s been quite the rollercoaster month for Bec Morse. She’s not ashamed to admit there’s been been plenty of tears.
But none of that’s evident as she warmly welcomes us to her beachside house, the day before she’s due to read her last bulletin for 10 News.
It’s been four weeks since Morse learnt she was being axed from presenting the local news, as part of sweeping national changes by Network Ten. And while it wasn’t entirely unexpected – given the brutal nature of television – there was still that initial sense of shock and disbelief.
“But then I sat for a bit and went ‘I knew this time would come’,” Morse says, adding when she messaged former 7NEWS presenter Jess Adamson after she was sacked in June, the thought she could face a similar fate crossed her mind. “I had mentally prepared that this was not the industry you work in forever. So I did know the call would come – I just hoped I would have a few more years but you can never control your destiny.”
Despite that inkling, Morse confesses she wasn’t sure she’d get through the news that initial night. Those tuning in noting the emotions plain on her usually composed face. “There were a lot of tears in the newsroom that day, but I wanted to try to be dignified,” she says. “Beyond that night, I just realised that they were likely be the last news bulletins I would ever read so I wanted to savour every last one of them.”
Thanks to social media, telling her three children was a little easier. She’d planned to share the news with the girls when she got home. But a friend of eldest daughter Grace had messaged her saying “I heard the news about your mum – I hope your family is OK.”
“The poor thing thought something truly terrible had happened to me, so it was actually a relief to hear it was just my job. That really put everything in perspective for the whole family,” Morse says.
Having a second job with the SAFM brekkie team has also helped soften the blow for the 43-year-old. She knows she’s in a much more fortunate position than the thousands of people joining the employment queues as COVID wreaks havoc on the nation’s economy.
And then there was the almost overwhelming number of messages and phone calls including from fellow journalists at other networks.
“It’s been nice to hear from other networks,” Morse says. “I think everyone feels a lot of solidarity around job losses and any reduction in local services. Other stations don’t see it as victory because they know it sets a dangerous precedent.”
There was also discovering the very real impact she’s had on viewers.
“A mother messaged me to say her baby was settled by my voice in front of the TV every night,” Morse says. “I had people tell me that watching our local news helped their family learn English. Others said I had helped inspire them to become journalists.”
She jokes it’s almost akin to attending your own funeral. “It’s kind of like dying and reading the tributes while you’re still alive.”
While she was nervously anticipating that final bulletin on Friday night, Morse was relaxed and down to earth, sweeping the veranda for the Sunday Mail photo-shoot, apologising for the chaos inside her home that she shares with husband and fellow journalist James Wakelin and their three children Grace, 17, Milla 11 and Frankie, 9.
“I asked James to clean up,” she says, with a laugh, gesturing to the signs of your typical, well-lived in family home. “He assured me he had. Apparently this is what he thinks is acceptable.”
While she’s looking forward to being home for dinner every night with her family for the first time in 12 years, she’s not sure they are as excited about her cooking for them.
Morse knows it will be wrench to leave the newsroom – she’s been working in them for more than 20 years after starting with the ABC as a fresh-faced cadet in 1998.
“I’ll miss the buzz of a big story breaking, the teamwork that’s needed to meet a deadline, and the nerves, excitement and responsibility of presenting a live bulletin,” she says.
She’s reported live from bushfires, covered state and federal elections, and anchored from Canberra during the leadership turmoil and while she’s poised and always eloquent on our screens, Morse confesses she can be starstruck such as when she bumped into former Sex and the City star Chris Noth at the Logies.
“He was standing up at the bar and I basically ran up and asked for a photo and then was actually unable to string words together,” she laughs. “It was definitely not my Carrie Bradshaw moment.”
More like Carrie Bradshaw are the strong friendships she’s forged in the newsroom. Morse is especially excited for good friend Kate Freebairn who’s just been announced as the Melbourne-Adelaide weather presenter. There’s been quite the tight-knit and supportive bunch of women at Ten – from Sandra Sully, Chris Bath, Narelda Jacobs to Natarsha Belling and Georgina Lewis.
“Chris Bath was at her first Logies with Ten last year and she said that is the most supportive bunch of women she’s ever worked with,” Morse says. “It was nice to hear from someone on the outside that we have a strong, non-competitive sisterhood. We’ve always had each other’s back.”
Now she’s not burning the candle at both ends, she’s looking forward to a whole lot more downtime to squeeze in beach walks with their dalmatian Henley, getting seriously back into pilates and F45, which has gone by the wayside with her brekkie radio commitments. And she can’t wait to tackle the massive stack of books on her bedside table.
Morse is positive about her future. She’s having so much fun in the mornings with her SAFM co-hosts Andrew “Cosi” Costello and Anthony “Lehmo” Lehmann. “There’s no ill feelings towards Ten. This is not a reflection of my performance or work ethic. There’s no what-ifs or what could have I done to prevent this.”