Studio 10’s Sarah Harris on why she finally left Channel 9

In a rare admission, Studio 10 host Sarah Harris has revealed the real reason she left Channel Nine after 12 years.

Sarah Harris is one of those rare humans you want to be mates with instantly.

Her self-deprecating humour, or what she calls a “warts and all approach”, her warm humility and no nonsense approach to life and her day job hosting chat show Studio 10, has made her one of Australia’s soon to be icons.

You see, it’s only her years that mean she’s not at that status yet, an impressive 37 year old woman with a successful career and family life, but she’s quick to make it clear, she’s holding on by her fingernails.

“I have women message me and say, ‘you’re on TV, juggling work and kids, how do you do it successfully?’

“I don’t,” Harris tells me over the phone.

I’d seen her on the Studio 10 panel that morning for the Daily Dilemma, where I’m always in awe of her ability to effortlessly traverse fact, opinion and the personal.

When I feel like I’m verbally flailing, Harris shoots me those knowing eyes that say, ‘you’ve got this, and I’ve got you’.

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She’s been in the hot seat for five years now, regularly wrangling co-hosts and injecting a good old fashioned dose of common sense on set. But Harris herself says there are days when even stringing a sentence together appears to be a behemoth task.

“I arrive here in activewear with vomit on it. The team wave a magic wand and make me presentable. If it wasn’t for them I would look like a hobo. Most days I’m held together by Spanx and caffeine,” she says honestly.

Harris explains the “grind” of morning TV, that three and a half hours every day of ‘being on’ would exhaust any professional.

I have this image from Toy Story when Barbie almost malfunctions from her manic smiling, but Harris isn’t your cookie cutter host.

She shares pics of herself in her PJs, double chins, sleepless nights, plus some power dressing looks we can all learn from.

“Sometimes I do overshare,” she admits, adding, “what I hope is that what shows is that I’m a fairly normal bird who has a small amount of time outside of work, and I want to spend that with my family.”

Family has always been a part of Harris’ story. But looking at the shiny, glossy host your unconscious biases might say there’s zero chance this woman came from a housing commission in Sydney’s western suburbs.

You’d be wrong.

“I didn’t really talk about it [the housing commission] for a long time. But then, I thought, for younger people who might find themselves in a position where they think there is no way out, they can see someone, perhaps like me, who started out with nothing and made something of their life.

“I have told that story because you are the master of your own destiny — one, if you work for it and two, if you have a good support network around you.”

Sarah Harris is pictured on her wedding day with husband Tom Ward. Picture: James Horan

For Harris, it was her high school teachers who took her under their wing and nurtured her love of writing. Recently, she returned to the school to be honoured by them as an outstanding alumni.

As Harris explains, this connection to education is why she’s thrown her support behind the Smith Family as an ambassador for The Smith Family’s annual Christmas Appeal to help thousands of disadvantaged children with their schooling.

“We’ve got more than one million young people growing up in poverty in Australia and the great thing about The Smith Family is that it raises money to make sure kids get a great education,” Harris says, adding, “their focus is on education, finishing high school and give back in that way.”

Christmas, as she remembers it, “wasn’t a particularly happy time of year.”

At age 24, her mum was a single mother, with two children under 3.

“My mum did it tough. I’m 37 and have a husband to help and am barely holding on with my fingernails. Money was so tight. So we wouldn’t be waking up to piles of presents under the tree.

“Mum was sad because she couldn’t give us that. She really did want to give us everything, so seeing mum upset was hard.”

Sarah Harris gave birth to a baby boy, Harry Scanlan Ward on December 8th 2017. Picture: Instagram @whatsarahsnapped

The story of a single mum giving everything to her kids is something a huge number of Australians would relate to, with Harris adding it wasn’t just Christmas that she felt different from other kids.

“In Australia you think, ‘yes we have free education, yes’, but there were oftentimes I couldn’t go on school camp because that was a couple of hundred dollars.

“It meant I would miss out on the camp, a week of school, and then be socially left out. The Smith Family covers that when families are at crisis point, because when you’re living on little money, those things like sending your kid to camp are big decision.

“It’s like, ‘do I replace the fridge or send my kid on school camp’, ‘do I fix the car or buy new school uniforms’?

“What The Smith Family does is swoop in to help with the essentials,” explains Harris.

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It’s anecdotes like this that show Harris just gets it. She knows want. She knows privilege. She knows hard work. She knows how to make a difference. She knows how to speak her mind — something being in the hot seat at Studio 10 has taught her.

Harris made the call five years ago to take the gig, after 12 years at Channel 9, as she says, “Nine was the most consistent thing in my life for a long time, I moved house a lot as a kid, my family broke down, I went to uni, so the only consistency was working there. I had to, in a way, make the leap to realise I was going to be okay and I’m really glad I did — it was a making of me in a way,” she says almost awkwardly.

Sarah Harris at the 2017 Channel 10 Upfronts held at the International Convention Centre in Darling Harbour. Picture: Christian Gilles

She hasn’t looked back since, now also co-hosting The Sunday Project, finding new audiences, in addition to her Studio 10 fans.

“Learning to become someone who has views on everything is challenging. Sometimes it’s easier to cover the facts. But really I just sit in that chair and have a conversation,” she says of her Studio 10 job.

“I’ve become more confident in the years that have worn on. Five years ago I wouldn’t have spoken about the importance of going to see a shrink regularly, or spoken about my body battles.

“It’s tricky though, you put your opinions out there and people come back at you with equally strong opinions. For a long time I just wanted to be liked and didn’t want to upset anyone by taking a side, but the older I get, I just don’t care. In your 20s you want to be the good girl, I am getting close to 40, I am who I am. I’m really confident in my own skin, most of the time.”

— Sarah Harris is an ambassador for The Smith Family urging you to help young Australians in need. For more information, go to thesmithfamily.com.au/sharechristmas

— This story originally appeared on whimn.com.au and is reproduced here with permission