Edwina Bartholomew and husband Neil Varcoe reveal his battle with debilitating illness

Edwina Bartholomew and husband Neil Varcoe have opened up about their joy of parenting and the struggles they’ve faced since he was struck down by a debilitating condition.

Sunrise newsreader Edwina Bartholomew has revealed her husband Neil Varcoe has been battling a little-known illness in recent years.

The couple have opened up about their struggles since becoming parents and how Varcoe’s debilitating condition has made raising their two very young children ever more challenging.

Bartholomew and Varcoe – who is also a journalist – are parents to three-year-old Molly and 16-month-old Tom.

But, while the joys of parenthood are ever-present, the couple has chosen to go public about their battle to juggle kids, careers and everyday life since Varcoe was first knocked for six by chronic fatigue five years ago.

Edwina Bartholomew on the cover of The Women’s Weekly July 2023 edition with children Molly and Tom. Picture: Alana Landsberry

The condition affects only one in 100 people nationally and there is no official medical treatment or cure. Instead, Varcoe says it’s a day-by-day wrestle to stay on top without overdoing it and finding himself pinned by another onset.

The couple tell their story in the July edition of The Australian Women’s Weekly, with Bartholomew gracing the cover on a swing with Molly and Tom.

Varcoe says he was first floored five years ago when a severe virus zapped all his energy.

“I was sick for about three weeks,” he tells The Weekly. “My energy went through the floor and there were moments when I would walk to the end of my street, and I had to turn around and come back home. I had nothing left.”

After returning to work, still feeling the weight of fatigue, Varcoe says he was hit by another virus three months later and “never recovered”.

With little known about chronic fatigue, which was previously labelled “syndrome” instead of an illness, the couple reveal a diagnosis was not immediate.

Edwina Bartholomew with husband Neil Varcoe and kids Molly and Tom.

Once they knew what they were dealing with, they embarked on a pursuit to find any treatment that would provide some relief.

Bartholomew, who turns 40 this month, describes this time as “navigating through a dark alleyway”.

“There are very few answers out there,” she told The Weekly. “It’s very much self-guided. You have to find your ow solutions, find what works for you. It’s been a really tough path.”

While Chinese medicine and medicinal marijuana have helped, Varcoe has to be careful not to take on too much with some days proving too tough to do anything more than read the kids a story.

Bartholomew concedes that the first eight weeks after giving birth both times was tough and “confronting”. In media interviews Bartholomew admitted feeling overwhelmed as a new mum, but she didn’t disclose the full challenges they were facing until now.

Bartholomew with husband Neil Varcoe.

Varcoe expresses his intense gratitude for his wife’s support while Bartholomew describes in detail how they have grown as a couple and as parents while facing and working through the challenges chronic fatigue has brought.

Now the family is getting ready for “its most life-changing adventure yet”. Read the full article in the July edition of The Australian Women’s Weekly.