High Steaks: How being an empty nester made Natalie Barr sad for a year

This year Sunrise co-host Natalie Barr will head to Europe, but for the first time in over 20 years it will be without a camera crew by her side – nor will she be accompanied by her two children.

In the middle of this year, Sunrise co host Natalie Barr will head to Europe, but for the first time in over 20 years it will be without a camera crew by her side.

Nor will she be accompanied by her two, now adult, children, Lachlan, 23 and Hunter, 19, who have moved out of the family home and now live interstate. Instead, her mid-year break will be just with husband, film editor Andrew Thompson.

Barr has never been to Greece, she says over lunch at, aptly, a buzzy new Greek restaurant called Ammos in Brighton Le Sands. So the two decided to do something “they would never normally do” and tick the country off their bucket list for their first big holiday without their children.

“We’ve just put so much energy into the kids.…(now) we’re just thinking about ourselves for once, which is a really new mindset,” she says.

For parents, like myself, who are in the so-called trenches of raising a young family, often at the same time as managing a career and a relationship, WA-born Barr’s new-found space seems almost idyllic.

Nat Barr at Ammos in Brighton Le Sands. Picture: Thomas Lisson

Barr understands that chaos. Since joining Channel 7’s Sunrise in 2002, first as news reader and then as co-host four years ago, her day has started at 2.30am and, after reporting on everything from elections to Taylor Swift mania, she’s gone home to pick up her kids from school, juggled afternoon sport with homework and dinner.

Now, as an empty nester, part of that daily chaos has subsided. And she misses it.

A family photo of husband Andrew Thompson and sons Lachlan and Hunter. Picture: Supplied

“It sort of sneaks up on you because you spend all these years where your main focus is those kids. Some days you barely remember how you got through and then suddenly somehow overnight, it ends. I was not prepared for that,” she says, as we savour the last of the spanakopita before our mains – saganaki prawns and Kidman scotch fillet – are served.

“I was shocked about how sad it was. I spent all last year being sad.”

That’s because in parenting, as in life, you’re often warned that the first milestones are the ones that are filled with emotion. But no one prepares you for the last. The last footy game. The last school assembly. The last time you have to make the kids dinner.

“Their childhood is over. That era of their lives is gone and you will never get it back. And you think, “Did I do it right? Did I do enough? Did I live in the moment? Did I yell at them too much? Did I give them too many Bolognese nights? Should I have mixed up the food?” she smiles. “I absolutely went through all that and that’s why you feel guilty at the end.”

Natalie Barr with Hunter, mum Julie, Lachlan and Andrew at Julie’s 80th in WA last year. Picture: Supplied

However the 56-year-old says she’s in a “much better place” this year, and it’s because she’s focusing on the signs that perhaps she did okay.

“(Hunter and Lachlan) they’re really nice people. I want to hang around them and they seem to want to hang around us,” she says.

“We all got on a plane and flew (to Western Australia) for my mum’s 80th in November last year and they all wanted to be there. They’re the moments where you think, ‘It seems to have all worked out so far’.”

It also means, those afternoons which were spent at school sport are now spent staying on top of a news cycle that never stops.

While the world is vastly different to when Barr first joined Channel 7 as a freelance news producer 30 years ago, she says her love of news hasn’t. It’s why, in 2002, when she got a phone call to join the desk of “this fledgling breakfast program that I almost said no to”, she’s never looked to get a job at another network.

“Once I was with Sunrise, we just grew into this juggernaut. There’s no way I wanted to leave that. Are you kidding me? Why would I want to leave?,” she says, adding she has never had to hit snooze on her alarm.

Natalie Barr taking part in a fundraiser with then Sunrise co-host, David “Kochie” Koch.

At last year’s Logie Awards with latest co-host, Matt Shirvington. Picture: Sam Tabone/Getty Images

“A lot of people have difficult jobs. I don’t think mine is one of them. I’m in a really lucky position. I will never complain about my job. I will never complain about my hours. I will always feel lucky to be here. I will not complain about getting up. I don’t have to be here. I could go do something else tomorrow. I still feel grateful and happy to have this.”

Unbeknown to her, Barr has become breakfast television’s great survivor. She’s now been on morning television longer than original previous co-hosts David Koch, Melissa Doyle and Sam Armytage, as well as those at rival networks. Even if they have Logie wins and nominations to their name, whereas Barr, surprisingly, has none.

She believes she’s survived the cutthroat world of television through a mentality to “keep your head down, try as hard as you can”, she says.

“And don’t be annoying to people in the newsroom. I think that’s a really important part. Although probably people are reading this thinking, ‘You are bloody annoying to me!’.”

After years spent reading the news, Barr has also been making the headlines with her grilling of politicians going viral on social media.

“I love doing those harder interviews and my aim has always been you shouldn’t know who I vote for,” she says.

Natalie Barr’s mains – saganaki prawns and Kidman scotch fillet – at Ammos. Picture: Thomas Lisson

And while, as host, she’s been asked to do more celebrity interviews, she doesn’t think they are her forte.

“I don’t want to say they’re not real people, but I like real people better,” she says.

As the lunch comes to an end, and our daydreaming of Greece has to be replaced with news headlines, I ask Barr what she’s most proud of.

As someone who spends her days asking questions, she knows this is an easy one to answer. “My boys,” she says. “Because when it comes down to it, yes, I’ve got an amazing job and my husband’s very happy with what he does, but it always comes back to family. That’s the most important thing and it always will be.”

Do you have a story for The Telegraph? Message 0481 056 618 or email [e-mail]