Kerri-Anne Kennerley carries ‘guilt’ into role as guest reporter for Seven’s Sunday Night

KERRI-ANNE Kennerley has been by the bedside of her beloved husband John since he suffered a spinal cord injury in March, but she will be back on our screens as a guest reporter for Seven’s Sunday Night

Kerri-Anne Kennerley arrives at Sydney International Airport. She is flying to London and Europe on assignment for Sunday Night.

If anyone knows how to keep the show on the road, it’s showbiz stalwart Kerri-Anne Kennerley.

But taking flight as a guest reporter for Seven’s Sunday Night now comes with some “guilt”, the TV trouper said, weighed down by the complications surrounding the care of her hospitalised husband John.

The former Midday and Mornings host has been by the bedside of her beloved John since he suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury in March, but was given his blessing for a leave pass to fly to the US for the chance to interview Australian singer and one of KAK’s karaoke favourites Rick Springfield.

Kerri Anne Kennerley and her husband John celebrating their 32nd year of marriage (in hospital). Source: Instagram: @kerriannekennerley

With John in need of around-the-clock nursing at Sydney’s Prince of Wales Hospital, Kennerley entrusted the roster of daily visits, meal planning and DVD duties to his niece Zara, while she got a well-earned respite of sorts — on overseas assignment.

The interview (8pm, tonight on Seven) with the Jessie’s Girl hit-maker explores Springfield’s own rollercoaster ride in life — from his eyebrow-raising relationship with a then-15-year-old actor Linda Blair, his battle with depression and the grief he still suffers after saying goodbye to his Zoot bandmate Darryl Cotton (who died of liver cancer in 2012).

Sunday Night guest reporter Kerri-Anne Kennerley with singer Rick Springfield. Picture: Supplied.

“We saw him in New Orleans in concert. He was sick as a dog, talk about the show must go on. He had lost his voice by the end, but it didn’t stop everybody else singing all the songs for him while he was surfing the mosh pit with all these Baby Boomers,” Kennerley said.

Leaving last week for London and Europe on two future stories, the 62-year-old KAK had to make peace with her “new norm”.

“Not every day is a great day and there are times when you go ‘what the … what’s happened here?’ But at the end of the day, we’re all averages. I got breast cancer … but I handled that much better than John has this. This has been soul-destroying with John because I was lucky in a sense to get it early and got better. This with John is never going to get any better. It will always be this way. At the same time, you’ve just got to just get on with it.”