Leigh Sales talks about her ‘bathroom emergency’ while interviewing Melinda Gates

Leigh Sales may appear unflappable, but she says she came very close to an embarrassing behind-the-scenes moment during a big interview.

Leigh Sales may appear unflappable when she’s on screen, but she almost suffered an embarrassing behind-the-scenes moment while interviewing tech billionaire Bill Gates’ ex-wife Melinda.

Opening up about some of the most colourful moments in her career, the veteran TV presenter said she was speaking to Melinda about the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation when her young son entered the room and demanded his bum be wiped.

“That was over the phone at home during Covid and my little guy called out “Mum, I need you to wipe my bum,”’ she told Charlie Pickering on ABC show The Weekly on Wednesday night. “Oh God, so I thought, OK, I can do this.

“So when she finished speaking I was standing at the bathroom door, I asked the next question, muted the phone, put it down, wiped his bum, quickly washed my hands unmuted and asked the next question,” she said, making vigorous hand gestures.

It wasn’t the only toilet related moment she opened up about.

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Leigh Sales said she wiped her son’s bum during an interview with Melinda Gates.

Sales was asked about a moment in last Saturday night’s broadcast when she seemed to be pressuring ABC’s election analyst, Antony Green, to call the election for Labor.

“Look, I think I’d been on (air) for about, I don’t know, four or five hours (by then). So you know, you kind of would like a toilet break because it’s the ABC (which doesn’t have ad breaks) right?’ she joked. “So you do reach a point where you’re like, come on, can we call this thing?”

She revealed a fellow ABC presenter had also been pressed about the toilet situation during a live broadcast.

“Annabel Crabb once was asked by a newspaper reporter, I think it was about the 2016 election, did Leigh Sales go to the toilet during that broadcast, which went for about six-and-a-half hours,” Ms Sales said. “And Crabb’s reply was ‘I cannot answer that question definitively. All I can tell you is she never left her desk.’”

In February, Ms Sales shocked viewers when she announced she was stepping down after 12 years at the helm of the ABC’s flagship current affairs show 7.30.

Speaking on the show, the 48-year-old revealed she would be leaving the desk “once the federal election is over”.

“There’s nothing wrong, other than I just feel a strong sense of it being time to pass the baton to the next runner in the race and to take a break,” she said.

Leigh Sales is stepping down from her role as host of 7.30. Picture: Rocket Weijers/Getty Images

“At the end of an election cycle feels like a good time to move on to something new at the ABC. I hope it’s been obvious that I’ve always approached this job with one goal – and that is to ask frank questions of people in power, without fear or favour, that a fair-minded, reasonable person with some common sense watching at home might like to ask if they were sitting in my position.”

Since taking up the role in 2010, Sales has covered five Australian prime ministers, presented nine federal budgets and covered two, and three federal elections.

“I’ve tried to shut down and call out bulls**t, hold powerful people to account, expose lies, incompetence and exaggeration in all political parties and all issues and present facts even when they’re unpopular or inconvenient,” she continued.

“I have truly tried my absolute hardest on behalf of you at home to do that every single time I’ve sat at the desk. Anchoring 7.30 has been the most amazing job and I’ll never stop being grateful for the opportunities it’s given me.”

ABC News has appointed multi-award-winning investigative journalist Sarah Ferguson as the new host of 7.30. She will replace Sales, who is leaving the program at the end of June.