Jennifer Keyte on why Australia ‘has finally grown up’

IN an industry where women are usually shuffled aside for men, Jennifer Keyte says her new job is not just a milestone for her — but for the nation.

Jennifer Keyte: “You’re only as good as your ratings. I go into it with my eyes wide open.” (Pic: Damian Bennett for Stellar)

JENNIFER Keyte isn’t afraid of change or a challenge. That’s just as well, because 2018 just became a much bigger year for the popular TV news presenter.

She was already undertaking a home renovation and tackling the ongoing job of being a single mother to two teenage boys when she made the seismic decision to return to Network Ten, where she started her career more than 35 years ago. This time around, she will anchor TEN Eyewitness News First At Five in Melbourne.

Still, the change Keyte is most looking forward to might be the biggest surprise of them all. After 15 years spent in the hustle of the Seven Network’s newsroom each Saturday and Sunday, Keyte says she revels in knowing her weekends will soon be free to stand in the wind and rain as she watches her son play soccer.

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“I like to shake things up, and I have certainly done that.” (Pic: Damian Bennett for Stellar)

“I have missed out on an enormous amount,” Keyte says of the family commitments she lost to work. Not long ago, she tells Stellar, “I went to my son’s soccer game — for the first time in 15 years. And I felt sad, because I realised he had grown up. The last time I saw him play soccer he was a little kid. And now I was watching these big boys with hairy legs and deep voices and I thought, ‘Hang on, that’s my baby!’”

Keyte, 58, was close to inking a new deal at Seven when Ten came calling. Not only was the network dangling the carrot of being their weeknight newsreader, but also the lure of guest spots on The Project, allowing Keyte to showcase her humour as she had done decades earlier on Tonight Live With Steve Vizard. Keyte remains great mates with Vizard, who she describes as the Aussie Seinfeld because he is “totally mesmerising and commanding” to watch as a performer.

“I’m looking forward to being part of The Project because I loved my time on Tonight Live,” she says. “That’s what I love about this business. I have done so many interesting things. There have been so many moments... I have had such an amazing career.” Now she’s ready to add another string to her bow.

“I like to shake things up, and I have certainly done that. And it feels good,” she says. Keyte is under no illusions about the pressures that await her: “I have been in this business long enough to know that you’re only as good as your research and your ratings. I go into it with my eyes wide open.”

With sons Zander and James in 2005, when they were aged two and five.

Keyte’s new role made headlines — not just because she switched networks, but also because it resulted in a casualty. In moving to Ten, she has replaced Stephen Quartermain, a popular personality who is also an old friend. In an industry where women tend to be the ones shuffled aside for men — of any age — it was something of a milestone.

“I think Australia has grown up,” Keyte says. As for Quartermain, “I’d love it if he would join me on the desk [doing sport] because we started at Ten together.”

Among her other colleagues in those days were Bruce McAvaney, Brigitte Duclos and Eddie McGuire. “We have all come through the business together. But things change. We are all aware that networks change ownership and things move around. But the great thing about this business is you can reinvent yourself and you can move around the chessboard and, if you love it, it’s still fabulous.”

Some of those who have felt the axe were among the people who sent messages of support when news broke of her appointment. But perhaps her proudest ally has been her 93-year-old father John, a retired pharmacist, who Keyte credits with inspiring her thirst for answers. He introduced her to talkback radio and encouraged his children to ask questions. “Dinnertime was lively. Dad was the expert at throwing bombs then sitting back and just waiting for it to ignite.”

In her role on Tonight Live with Steve Vizard in 1991.

And, she says, he understands the game-changing importance of her new job. “When I told him the offer he said: ‘That’s extraordinary! That’s such a vote for your experience.’”

Tears well in Keyte’s eyes when she considers how proud her late mother would have been, too. Like her daughter, Dorothy Keyte was a woman who wasn’t afraid to push the boundaries.

Just before she welcomed a sixth child into the world, Dorothy returned to university to study fitness. She wanted to get mothers out of their homes and into the world, so they could maintain good health while growing friendships.

When her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, Keyte drew on her years as a medical reporter, sitting by her mum’s side and asking the questions Dorothy was too embarrassed to ask.

Keyte says her mother’s work ethic and social conscience had a lasting impact on all her offspring and the hole left by her death four years ago is still felt acutely, particularly by her father. That devotion is something Keyte — who split from husband Ben Faggetter in 2009 — still wants for herself.

Jennifer Keyte features in this week’s issue of Stellar.

She guards her private life, but when asked admits, “It would be lovely to have a partner. I probably should prioritise romance at some stage, but I haven’t. I have always believed if it happens it will happen. It’s not something where I say, ‘Argh, I need to have a partner.’ My life is full and rich and loving and happy.”

Keyte says her sons James, 18, and Zander, 15, have become better at sharing their mother with the stargazers in the street. “I think it has settled down over the years because with Instagram, everybody has a profile. All sorts of people are out there — it’s not such a big deal anymore.”

And they are supportive of her return to full-time work — after all, they get her at those soccer games now. “My commitment, when I became a mum, was to go part-time like so many of us do,” she points out. “They came first. Work took a back seat and I was really fortunate to get a weekend position, which has been wonderful for 15 years.”

Now, though, the boys are growing into men. “My boys have had to learn to step up,” she says. “I have said to them, ‘Now that I am working full-time, if you’re hungry? Go to the shops, buy some food... and cook.’”

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