Natarsha Belling: ‘I didn’t have a voice’

After two decades reading the news at Network 10, Natarsha Belling was unceremoniously dumped in August last year. Now she tells Stellar about the “leap of faith” that has led her to her next chapter.

For Natarsha Belling, the challenge with being a newsreader was having to deliver the news without commenting on it. It’s a fine skill to sound authoritative, pronounce names correctly and strike the appropriate tone, but when the government stuffs up or there’s a social issue that riles, she couldn’t just weigh in with her opinion.

“I didn’t have a voice,” the former Network 10 stalwart tells Stellar. “I feel like now I have a voice and a platform to talk about issues that I’m incredibly passionate about.”

Then, of course, she was unceremoniously dumped from the network in August 2020 after more than two decades of dedicated service, when a mass culling at Studio 10 resulted in job losses for herself, co-host Kerri-Anne Kennerley, weatherman Tim Bailey and, later, Joe Hildebrand.

One presumes it would have been upsetting or, at the very least, destabilising. But Belling didn’t miss a beat.

“I don’t want to dwell on the past” (Picture: Steven Chee)

“I got a call the morning after I left 10 asking me to front [an] innovative news podcast and be a key part of a new national radio talk show.”

She immediately started working on podcast Australia Today’s Morning Agenda and radio show Australia TodayWith Steve Price. She is also a commentator and stand-in host on Seven Network’s Sunrise and The Morning Show.

The 46-year-old mother of two says these new ventures give her the chance to wade into debates on everything from Covid policies and aged care to the issues facing rural and regional Australia.

“I’m someone who believes you have to focus on the future and not dwell on the past,” she says.

“While there’s nothing like live television, I’m also loving the immediacy of radio, where you have the time to have really thoughtful conversations about issues that matter.”

Working for Network 10, she says, provided her with “amazing opportunities and lifelong friends”. But being let go turned out to be the push she hadn’t realised she needed.

“I would never, ever, ever have taken this leap of faith,” she says. Along with that long-stifled voice she references often in her chat with Stellar, Belling is also “and most importantly, working for organisations that value news and invest in news as we’re currently undertaking one of the biggest news stories and medical and financial challenges in 100 years”.

While she’s still up at 3.30am each weekday to research, script and present the podcast, Belling admits she is thrilled that not being on camera for that or her radio show means there is no need to frock up and submit herself to the newsreader’s trademark hair and make-up regimen.

“My skin has never looked better,” she says, while going on to reveal that after years of having a team to attend to her grooming, it’s now her husband Glen Sealey who steps in.

“During lockdown my husband was forced to dye my hair,” she says. “Covid highlighted how valued our hairdressers are, but we’ve also acquired new skills we never thought possible.”

“I feel like now I have a voice and a platform to talk about issues that I’m incredibly passionate about.” (Picture: Steven Chee)

In fact, just the day before, her husband of 20 years once again donned the plastic gloves and helped Belling colour her hair; it’s a new habit that has amused her sons, Harry, 15, and Hugo, 13. As she says: “My 13-year-old said to me, ‘I didn’t think Covid could get any worse until I saw this.’ He’d have never seen that before.”

Whether her natural ebullience is innate or is perspective gained from decades of covering horrific news events, Belling admits she is all about the silver lining. It’s the phrase she uses when she talks about losing her job and, subsequently, the NSW lockdown that meant the whole family was trying to work and study from home.

“It was interesting when Glen would be on a conference call and I’d need to go for my afternoon nap, but we were lucky,” she points out.

“We weren’t frontline workers having to go to work every day and risk bringing Covid home to our family. I just kept thinking about how challenging it would be if we had loved ones in aged care, or if we were losing our business.”

While she believes the pandemic has been tough on young Australians like her sons – who not only had their schooling interrupted but also their social interactions thwarted – she focused on creating a calm environment, drawing on The Serenity Prayer for inspiration. “You just have to focus on what you can control,” she says.

“I’ve never seen more parents out and about with their kids walking or riding bikes. We’ve proven you can work from home, in some circumstances, and we need to redefine what a modern workplace looks like, not only for people’s mental health but also to make sure that people are as happy at home as they are in the workplace.”

Growing up in the NSW town of Mudgee and starting her career in Orange before moving to the ABC in Darwin means Belling has retained a strong and innate interest in regional issues.

Days after hearing of an elderly woman being mistreated in an aged-care home, she’s still troubled by the story and remains frustrated that supply issues, access to health practitioners and the impact of the pandemic on regional tourism operators don’t get enough attention in the national agenda.

Natarsha Belling features in this Sunday’s Stellar.

She is also frustrated by ageism and, while heartened by more mature people continuing careers in the media, says she believes their wisdom needs to be celebrated.

“I know people in their 60s and 70s who have invaluable life experience, and they’re almost pushed out of the workforce when they’d love to work on a one-, two- or three-day basis.” As for her own career? “I never want to retire,” she insists.

While she’s an advocate for looking forwards, not backwards, Belling will admit that there is one thing she’s missing: hugs. “I’ve missed cuddling people,” she says with a laugh. “I miss that human connection, and with borders closed I can’t begin to imagine how difficult that has been for some people.”

While she’s keen on a return to physical affection, her sons aren’t necessarily compliant. As she says: “I’m always hugging but my teenage boys thought [social distancing] was great... because they don’t want to hug me right now.”

Your Morning Agenda With Natarsha Belling and Australia Today With Steve Price are available via the LiSTNR app.

Originally published as Natarsha Belling: ‘I didn’t have a voice’