Inside resurrected Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce’s relationship with ex-staffer Vikki Campion
Just three years ago, Barnaby Joyce’s partner was the central figure in one of the biggest sex scandals in Australian politics.
The woman who sparked the infamous “bonk ban” in Canberra now lives a quiet life as a mother of two young boys in regional NSW, but just three years ago Barnaby Joyce’s partner was the central figure in one of the biggest sex scandals in Australian politics.
Former tabloid journalist Vikki Campion’s romance with her married boss exploded onto the front pages after her old newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, revealed she was pregnant with the Deputy Prime Minister’s love child.
After months of denials when journalists came knocking about the “worst kept secret in Canberra”, a heavily pregnant Vikki Campion emerged in photographs in February 2018 which captured her crossing the road near her Canberra apartment and filling up the tank of her car.
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What followed was a political upheaval, including a sexual harassment investigation that prompted Mr Joyce to resign his leadership to clear the air. He denies any wrongdoing.
Contacted by news.com.au this week, Ms Campion revealed she’s “waiting for the dust to settle” and wasn’t doing any media – yet.
But she was the star attraction at the swearing in of her partner as Deputy PM on Tuesday, along with her two young sons, Sebastian and Tom. The younger brother clambered over guests in a pair of bright blue wellington boots.
Conservative Nationals pressured her to have an abortion
When she has spoken to the media in the past, the hardworking former journo didn’t miss, revealing she was pressured to terminate her baby by “conservatives” within the National Party.
“They came to me and they said ‘You’re pregnant and you have to get an abortion’. And they said, ‘If you don’t, they’re gonna come after you’,” she told Channel 7’s Sunday Night.
“And I said, ‘it’s too late, it has a heartbeat’. And they said, ‘If you don’t, they’re gonna come after you’.’’
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“And they did,” Mr Joyce said.
Mr Joyce said those involved were “absolute scum of the earth people.”
“Their contribution to it is they’re gonna try and make an incredibly difficult situation almost unbearable by saying to you that, ‘Woman, you will do this if you want a career in this place’. And that’s your Australian Parliament,” he said.
The Loneliest Man in Canberra
Veteran journalist Nikki Savva, a former press secretary to ex-Treasurer Peter Costello, writes in her book Plots and Prayers that Ms Campion made no secret of her closeness to Joyce despite his 24-year marriage to wife Natalie.
“She would describe him as the loneliest man in Parliament,’’ Savva wrote.
Barnaby Joyce, 52, at first resisted pressure from his party to resign. It was only when a sexual harassment claim emerged that he stepped down as leader of the Nationals Party and Deputy Prime Minister.
How the affair started
Opening up about when their affair started, Ms Campion said the pair were “close for a long time” before things turned romantic in “late 2016”.
“I was close to him. I was going through some fairly difficult private circumstances of my own. He was also going through some things,” she said.
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Mr Joyce said the controversial couple “didn’t stumble into this like we were kids” and hadn’t set out to hurt anyone with their affair.
“You show me the person who has a perfect marriage and I’ll show you a liar,” Mr Joyce said.
Ex-wife wanted to ‘put a brick through the TV’
But the tell-all interview angered Mr Joyce’s first wife.
When Natalie Joyce broke her silence on the worst two years of her life in the July 2018 issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly, she revealed the controversial couple’s tell-all made her want to put a brick through the TV.
“I wasn’t surprised she sold their ‘exclusive’ story, and certainly not surprised the $150,000 went to her child, but it begs the question, if Barney agreed to be a part of it, how could he allow his four girls to be overlooked?” she told the magazine.
“In saying that, I wouldn’t want a cent of that money. It was all we could do to watch it without throwing a brick at the TV.
“I’m doing this so the girls feel empowered, and know their mum stood up and defended our fine name.”
His four daughters, Bridgette, 20, Julia, 19, Caroline, 17, and Odette, 15, seemed nonplussed after the scandal broke, but of course they had known about the relationship for months.
‘My husband is off limits’
Ms Joyce, who now goes by her maiden name of Abberfield, also spoke of the first time she confronted Ms Campion after she suspected the pair were having an affair.
Ms Joyce said she saw Barnaby and Ms Campion smoking outside together but when her husband saw her, he “bolted”.
His disappearing act left the two women alone.
“I was very measured. I didn’t raise my voice,” she recalled.
“She and Barney were smoking outside. He bolted when he saw me.
“I turned to her and said, ‘My husband is out of bounds, off-limits, he’s a married man with four children’, and then I called her a home-wrecking wh***.
“It was not one of my finer moments but, looking back, I’m proud I stood up to her.”
Natalie Abberfield now living her best life
Three years on, Mr Joyce’s relationship with his four daughters and ex-wife has settled and his first wife has dropped some serious kilograms by taking up bodybuilding.
“I quite literally had an epiphany – I decided this was not going to break me but be the making of me. At the time, as the collapse of our marriage played out so publicly, I won’t lie – I was not in a good place,” she told Woman’s Day.
“I knew I had to keep it together for the girls, and I had two choices: Either unravel, or shake myself off and aim to get the best out of myself, so I could be the best for them.”
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“I turn 50 this year and have a second chance for a glorious life with new beginnings.
“In June last year I looked in the mirror and thought I’m not going to let someone else’s appalling behaviour derail me, so I joined the local gym, and I’ve never looked back. And I’ve always wanted to compete in a bodybuilding comp. Some people might think I’m crazy!”
She revealed she ultimately lost around 15 kilograms.
“I’m only 160cm and I tipped the scales at 70kg – and today I’m just shy of 55kg. I had thickened out, [which was] likely related to being pre-menopausal – I just looked squishy! I cut out sugar, bad fats and unfriendly carbs, and replaced them with healthy choices,” she explained.
The mother-of-four said that the new Nationals leader was “a man I no longer know”.
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