Samantha Armytage farewells mum Elizabeth at Wagga funeral

Samantha Armytage has delivered a heartbreaking farewell to her beloved mum today, breaking down in tears as she revealed her sister had asked her: “what do we do now, without a mummy?”.

• Model lashes out: ‘I’m 6 foot 3 and won’t shut up’
• Riches to rags: Aussie star who became a window cleaner

Sunrise host Samantha Armytage has said goodbye to her much loved mother, Elizabeth.

Known as Libby, a small group of family gathered to remember the 68-year-old at Wagga Wagga’s St Michael’s Cathedral this morning.

“She had the most extraordinary flair and creativity and great taste for the house, the garden, art, colours, clothes, words,” Armytage said as she delivered an emotional yet sometimes funny eulogy.

“She adored the theatre and the ballet. She was my barometer, my personal pub test for what was good and what was silly and when not to take crap. She was highly discerning, she often mused that she couldn’t tolerate fools and idiots, something we have all inherited.”

Armytage, 44, broke down to tears as she revealed her sister, Georgie, had asked her: “what do we do now, without a mummy?”.

Samantha Armytage and her mum Elizabeth who passed away age 68.

“Mum used to say often, you’re only as happy as your unhappiest child. She knew we had all finally found happiness, and so she left,’ Armytage said. “She’s gone too soon. She was thoughtful. She was very kind, very polite.”

Armytage recalled a time her mother and family hosted US Secretary of State Dick Cheney at their rural property, putting on an “Aussie spread” with lamb on the spit, home made pavlova and local wines.

All the American’s wanted, she said, was Coca-Cola, which her mother did not have in the kitchen.

Samantha Armytage shared the news of her mother’s passing on Instagram.

Given COVID-19, the funeral service was live streamed online and numbers in the church were kept to a minimum of close family and friends.

Armytage revealed her mother’s passing in a touching tribute on social media last week.

“Last Tuesday afternoon, a little while after the Melbourne Cup was run, our beautiful mumma passed away, just 10 days before her 69th birthday,” she wrote.

“Mums are the centre of a family and losing ours has thrown us all in a spin & left a huge, irreparable hole in each of our hearts,” Armytage wrote in a tribute on Instagram.

“She had fought bravely for a long time and suffered a lot, but finally her big-loving heart just couldn’t do it anymore. Mums are the centre of a family and losing ours has thrown us all in a spin & left a huge, irreparable hole in each of our hearts. We are very, very sad. She was wonderful; kind, loving, loyal, wildly wicked, funny & formidable. This is her ‘happy place’, her rose garden, where we remember her. She will be missed forever, but she’s at peace now … forever an angel.”

The soon-to-be-married Armytage, who recently postponed her wedding to Richard Lavender due to COVID-19, had taken time away from her post on the top-rating breakfast show to be by her mother’s side as she battled illness after telling viewers back in August her mum was “gravely ill” with heart failure.

At the time she also revealed her father, Mac, had recently suffered a stroke but it’s understood he is now recuperating at home following a stay in hospital.

Originally published as Samantha Armytage farewells mum Elizabeth at Wagga funeral