‘I felt relieved, but also kind of sick’: Brooke Boney on leaving the Today show and her next big move

Former Today show presenter Brooke Boney has opened up about what really happened during her shock departure from Nine, and how her colleagues – including Karl Stefanovic – reacted.

Brooke Boney talks about her life-altering decision to leave Today and study abroad, and a “surreal” life milestone.

Stellar: Last year, you left your job as a news presenter and entertainment reporter on the Today show and moved to the UK to pursue a Master of Public Policy at Oxford University. You’re beaming into this interview from your dorm room.

Brooke Boney: I am. It’s freezing cold and I’ve got class today, so I’m very much feeling like a student and not like a Today host anymore.

And it’s morning there, though not as early as when you were showing up to the set of breakfast TV in Australia. I’m guessing you don’t miss those 3.30am wake-ups.

My earliest class at the moment is maybe 10am. I can sleep until 8am or 8.30am like a normal person. This is what you guys have been doing? It’s beautiful.

‘It feels surreal!’ Former Today show presenter Brooke Boney is set to release her memoir, All Of It. Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

Aside from your studies, your first book – a memoir called All Of It – is out soon. What a moment.

It feels surreal. I swear I’m not being disingenuous, but to be somewhere like Oxford and then to have written a book … I thought those things were for really exceptional people, or for people who weren’t me. It seemed so far out of the realm of possibility. It doesn’t feel like it’s happening to me. I feel like I’ve stepped onto a different timeline.

Your book starts in March 2024, when you were bracing yourself to tell the nation you were leaving Today after five years and moving to the other side of the world to study – which you started in October.

Even hearing that makes me feel uneasy, like I’m going through it again. I remember getting the email to say I’d got in and thinking, am I even allowed to go? Are they going to let me do this? The day I told my boss, we finished the meeting we have every day after the show, and I was like, “Can you stay? I want to talk about something.”

He was like, “What’s going on?” The immediate response – from everyone – was just joy. But in my mind, I was like, everyone is going to be angry at me for leaving. They’ll be annoyed I’ve disrupted the show.

‘Sarah and I were sitting next to each other like: they’re gonna think one of us is pregnant.’ Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

Listen to Brooke Boney on Something To Talk About below:

I think I told Karl [Stefanovic] and Sarah [Abo] a couple of days before, and they were both like, “Oh, you’re going to get off the early mornings, we’re so jealous!” But they were both really sad I was leaving, and that was lovely, too.

The morning of, we got show rundowns – and one heading said “surprise news”. Everyone was abuzz. Sarah and I were sitting next to each other like: they’re gonna think one of us is pregnant. Then the moment it happened I felt so relieved but also kind of sick. You can’t go back after that. Once I’d said it on TV, that’s it.

You spoke about thinking you could never be that person who goes to study at Oxford and writes a book. But you became that person in that moment. What would you say to people who say you inspired them, or that they didn’t think they could find the courage to do what you did?

It’s weird to think of it as courage, or as anything other than just doing what you have to do. I always wanted to do things that could show young women from the country or young Aboriginal girls – or anyone, really – that if you want to do something, it’s not beyond you if you work really hard. So once I’d done that, I was like, OK, there are other things that I really want to do. If I don’t do them now, then I kind of never will. I got to a point where it felt like the only option, if that makes sense. To stay would have been robbing myself of another alternative.

You also write about the dark side of fame, including serious instances of being stalked and followed. What are your observations about celebrity culture in Australia, now you have a bit of distance from it?

I didn’t realise how much that kind of thing had an impact on me until I was away from it. I’m not one of the most famous women, or someone who’s harassed that much by photographers. But you always sort of have that in the back of your mind; it’s omnipresent. And when you do have those awful stalking incidents, sometimes they’re unresolved. So the person is still out there, they maybe still have a desire to be in contact with you. Maybe they’re even more enthusiastic than before. You just don’t know. Here, because I’m so far removed from it, there’s a layer of stress that’s just not there. So I feel much more relaxed.

In her memoir All Of It, Brooke Boney addresses the topic of fertility, opening up about ‘doing a couple of rounds’ of egg freezing. Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

One of the topics your book tackles is the lies we’re told about fertility. What are those lies?

When we’re young, we have this idea – and maybe the generations below us are different – that parenthood is a right, or will just happen. But we’re finding out it really doesn’t for a lot of people.

As a woman, you spend your whole life trying not to get pregnant; your whole 20s, you’re so happy when you get your period. But at a certain point, it’s like, “Oh no, I’m going to run out of time.” It sort of switches. It’s bizarre.

I did a couple of rounds of egg freezing, and every time I have a conversation with a woman in her 30s, I’m like, “Please, for the love of God, even if you have to borrow money from your parents or something … figure it out: freeze your eggs. It means you’re going to be able to work for longer if you feel like it. But you’re also not going to have the pressure to feel like you have to settle down with the person you’re with.” You just have a bit more control – or at least you feel like you’ve got more. I don’t know whether it’s the same as when I froze mine, but apparently most women don’t even go back for them. They either decide they don’t want to have children or they fall pregnant naturally. It’s like insurance.

Brooke Boney is on the cover of today’s Stellar. Picture: Stellar

The former Nine co-host pictured during her announcement about leaving Today. Picture: Nine

It’s about peace of mind, and as you say in the book, asking: is this the person I want to raise a child with? Or if it doesn’t work out, somebody I see myself co-parenting with?

That’s not a conversation that would have happened a couple of generations ago. It’s very pragmatic and not very romantic, but it’s realistic. I feel it’s wise to consider how people would behave in that situation. If someone isn’t going to be pleasant in that dynamic, maybe that’s a sign. It goes against my natural inclination to be a bit more romantic and hopeful, but I think it’s wise to consider.

Listen to Brooke Boney on Something To Talk About below:

As a woman of colour (Boney is a proud Gamilaroi woman), you’ve had a level of scrutiny, vitriol and outright awful racism aimed at you. In your book, you pose a powerful question on the conversation of race: “Does it make you a bit of a sicko to be able to endure racism because you can see that there is broader benefit to it, both individually and for the community?”

It’s weird because at first I thought [being a role model] is noble and important. I want to be able to share our stories. It was important to express perspectives people really hadn’t been exposed to before. Over time, and with the rise of social media, it became harder and harder to do in a way that felt like I was striking a balance where I was genuinely having an impact in any kind of conversation. You sort of measured that against how much backlash you got on things.

Brooke Boney pictured at a Sydney social event in 2022. Picture: Getty Images

‘I don’t have some secret plan to come back and pop up on another show.’ Picture: Getty Images

‘We’re so jealous!’ Brooke Boney’s former Today show colleagues Karl Stefanovic and Sarah Abo. Picture: Belinda Rolland

The first week I was on Today, I talked about how we celebrate January 26, and how I kind of didn’t really want to. And I learnt really quickly that so many people want to deliberately misinterpret things you say because they don’t like you or don’t want to understand you.

More than that, so many people don’t fully engage, and sort of just get the top line “Oh, you don’t like Australia Day. That must mean you think this.” So you get really quickly categorised.

Listen to Brooke Boney on Something To Talk About below:

After a while I was like, I don’t know if the balance is there for me if it stacks up like this. This isn’t healthy. It felt a bit off kilter. But it would be the same for women, right? If you’re the only woman in a boardroom or a senior management position, you think, oh gosh, I’m having an awful time because of these reasons … but it’s important for other young women to see me here, to represent them and make decisions that reflect their best interests. At a certain point, you’d be like, I don’t know that this is helping them as much as it’s hurting me.

What do you think the future might bring for you professionally? When you finish at Oxford, what might we see you do next?

I don’t have some secret plan to come back and pop up on another show. I’d love to write another book. I love to study. Next week, when I have my economics exam, I probably won’t think this – but academia is wonderful. To use your brain in a way you never have, it’s a privilege. So I don’t know. If you hear of anything good, let me know.

All Of It by Brooke Boney ($34.99, Allen & Unwin) is out April 1.

Read, watch and listen to Stellar’s exclusive interview with Brooke Boney. Inside The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (VIC), The Sunday Mail (QLD) and Sunday Mail (SA), and on Something To Talk About, wherever you get your podcasts.

Originally published as ‘I felt relieved, but also kind of sick’: Brooke Boney on leaving the Today show and her next big move