Sam Armytage reveals why she ‘sobbed in a paddock’ recently

The ex-Sunrise host, who moved to the country in 2021, has opened up about the devastating event that recently left her distraught.

Ex-Sunrise host Samantha Armytage has revealed why she “sobbed in a paddock” recently in a candid new interview.

The 46-year-old presenter quit the Channel 7 breakfast program after eight years in 2021 and moved to Berrima with her horse-breeding farmer husband, Richard Lavender.

The stunning rural setting provides a very different lifestyle to her former set up in the heart of Sydney: but it has its challenges, as she explained to The Daily Telegraph this week.

“We had to put down one of our most promising and sweet-natured racehorses last week, after he broke his leg in an accident. I sobbed in the paddock,” Armytage told the publication.

Elsewhere in the interview, she also revealed the advice she’d give her 10-year-old self.

“That the people who are mean to you throughout life are usually jealous of who you are – and what you have,” Armytage said.

The former Sunrise host now lives with her husband in the country. Picture: Instagram

Last month, the former breakfast TV presenter was announced as the new host of the 2023 season of Farmer Wants A Wife, replacing Natalie Gruzlewski, who has helmed the series on-and-off ever since its debut in 2007.

Meanwhile, Gruzlewski’s new role as a co-host is essentially the one that Armytage filled when she first joined the dating series last year, which mainly involved a more casual mingling with the contestants.

Armytage on Farmer Wants A Wife. Picture: Channel 7

Armytage’s new TV role comes just months after she ruled out ever returning to Sunrise in an interview with Stellar magazine.

“I’d never go back. You don’t go backwards in life. You’ve got to keep going forward,” she said.

Armytage went on to say she senses “fear” in the media landscape these days.

“When I do listen to radio and TV, no-one’s actually saying what they mean,” she said.

“Everybody’s walking this tightrope because they fear they’ll say the wrong thing and the mob will descend on them, and that’s not journalism, and it’s not what I was paid to do back in the old days.

“I can’t tell you how many random people on the street come up to me and say, ‘Oh my God, I miss you so much. You used to say what I was thinking at home.’ And, look, I don’t know if I’d be allowed to do that these days.”