Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion reveal they were pressured to abort their baby
VIKKI Campion has made a startling claim about the baby boy she had with Barnaby Joyce ahead of Sunday’s interview.
NSW
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IN a promotional clip for a controversial television interview, in which Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion were paid $150,000, the couple has revealed they were pressured to abort their baby.
The newly released clip for Channel Seven’s Sunday Night program reveals there “were people who tried to stop the baby being born”.
It then cuts to Ms Campion who says: “They said if you don’t, they’re going to come after you …[and] … they did”.
“I would do anything to protect him,” she continues in reference to the couple’s son.
“Everything was worth it for this.”
In the clip, a tearful Ms Campion says: “You can’t help who you fall in love with.”
Mr Joyce can then be seen and heard saying: “I failed, I failed, I failed, I failed, I failed.”
The former deputy prime minister and his one-time adviser are expected to receive $150,000 for the tell-all interview.
But Mr Joyce has denied he will benefit from it, telling reporters the money was going into a trust for the pair’s son, Sebastian.
She’s at the centre of the biggest political sex scandal in decades, yet nobody has heard her side of the story until now. On @sundaynighton7, Vikki Campion speaks to @alextcullen for the first time about her illicit affair with @Barnaby_Joyce. #SN7 - June 3 - 8.30pm @Channel7. pic.twitter.com/LkXu6GazKE
— Sunday Night (@sundaynighton7) May 30, 2018
Earlier, Mr Joyce blamed Ms Campion for accepting payment for the Channel Seven interview, arguing it would not have been necessary if Australia had stronger privacy laws.
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“In the last fortnight we’ve had drones over our house, we’ve had paparazzi waiting for us outside Armidale airport, we’ve had people following us to Uralla,” Mr Joyce said on Tuesday.
“We tried just burning this out and that didn’t work.”
The decision by Australia’s former deputy prime minister to sell his story about having a love child with his former aide sparked derision Tuesday and calls for politicians to be banned from paid interviews.
Cabinet minister Kelly O’Dwyer said most Australians are “pretty disgusted” by the paid interview.
“I don’t think a parliamentarian should take money for an interview. I don’t think their spouse should either,” Ms O’Dwyer told Sky News.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the interview was “certainly not” something he would have encouraged.
“I think you can understand how I feel about it but I’ll just be circumspect, uncharacteristically circumspect, on this and leave it for a private discussion,” he told the ABC on Tuesday.
#BREAKING Barnaby Joyce breaks his silence on a paid interview with @sundaynighton7 "We tried for privacy. In the last fortnight we've had drones over our house. We've had paparazzi waiting for us....We tried just just burning this out & that didn't work." @7NewsSydney
— Taylor Aiken (@tayloraiken7) May 28, 2018
Mr Joyce met with the Prime Minister later that day and was granted extended personal leave effective immediately.
He will reportedly be on leave for 11 weeks and won’t return until the next Parliamentary sitting in August.
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Earlier, in an interview with The Australian, Mr Joyce said his partner decided to accept the money because other media were already profiting from invading their privacy.
“Remember there are other people in this interview, being Vikki and Seb, so if it was just an interview with me as a politician, sure, I am not going to charge for that,” he told The Australian.
“But that is not what they wanted.
“They wanted an interview obviously to get Vikki’s side of the story, and like most mothers she said, ‘Seeing as I am being screwed over and there are drones and everything over my house in the last fortnight, paparazzi waiting for me, if everybody else is making money then [I am] going to make money out of it’.”
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Mr Joyce was bumped to the backbench after his relationship with Ms Campion became public in February.
He has since split from his wife, Natalie, the mother of his four daughters.
His son with Ms Campion, Sebastian, was born on April 16.
Originally published as Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion reveal they were pressured to abort their baby