Is it time for Sam Armytage to ride off into the Southern Highlands sunset?

When I wrote about Samantha Armytage in this column a month ago, the Sunrise co-host, who had ignored my overtures to pick up the phone and talk, opted for her usual response: a dummy spit on social media and a bit of name calling, labelling me “a grot”.

The Sunrise team: Natalie Barr, executive producer Michael Pell, Samantha Armytage, David Koch and Mark Beretta.Credit: Seven

My crime? Reporting that - given Armytage’s supposedly happier new life with her millionaire husband and home in the country - a question mark hung over her future at the helm of Sunrise and the unrelenting daily grind of breakfast TV, which she partially stepped back from last year.

Armytage was incensed. So much so she emboldened many of her hundreds of thousands of fans to chime-in. The mostly anti-masker, anti-lock-down Trumpianesque whack-jobs with shabby grammar threatened all manner of ill-will. No doubt they will be barking at the shadows of Twitter yet again today after reading this.

Woof, woof.

And yet last Wednesday Armytage herself poured petrol on the smouldering flames of speculation about her career when she admitted on national radio that she could see herself giving up her glittering media career for a quiet life in the bush.

Samantha Armytage and Richard Lavender. Credit: Steven Siewert

While offering the qualification she still “loved” her job and that she couldn’t leave right now, even if she wanted to, because she is currently “under contract”, she admitted that after 22 years the constant adrenalin her high-profile news job generated was probably not healthy.

No one was listening closer than her bosses at Seven, one later noting it sounded as though she was being held hostage by the network.

Armytage, 44, who no longer has a manager representing her having gone through all the major talent agents in Sydney over the past several years, has long complained about the intrusion of her privacy from various media outlets and the photographers who “sit outside my home”.

Samantha Armytage

She has railed against the Daily Mail and last year famously tweeted there was a “special place in hell” for the staff of Woman’s Day. The magazine had the audacity to report Armytage had met her future husband’s adult daughters.

And yet it was the paparazzi who alerted the media to Armytage’s top-secret wedding on New Year’s Eve, which had apparently been organised at the last minute with just a handful of family and friends attending, all sworn to secrecy. We can only wonder who told the paps to be in the Southern Highlands for Armytage’s big day, because someone most certainly did.

My column last month which so upset Armytage prompted key TV players to get in touch, including several people in extremely close proximity to Sunrise’s Martin Place Studios. They have all backed up the story.

The show’s executive producer Michael Pell, once one of Armytage’s most ardent defenders, has been noticeably silent. It was only a few months ago I reported Pell and Armytage were on better terms after their relationship had cooled somewhat, though they are far from being the “besties” they once were.

However several others at Martin Place generously offered their insights. Some dished up even more intriguing detail - such as poor relations within the Sunrise “family” when the cameras stop rolling.

“They barely speak to each other when we’re off air,” one nervously admitted, pleading to remain anonymous.

They openly talked about the “Armytage issue” which currently has management at Seven looking for a solution, frustrated that their star charge is so willing to court controversy on platforms like social media, and without their imprimatur.

Not that it has affected the show’s performance, with ratings as strong as ever and still well ahead of rival Today, though some might argue that has little to do with Armytage individually.

Sunrise has developed a wide net of talent, making its ratings less dependent on the popularity of key hosts David Koch and Armytage. Natalie Barr, Mark Beretta and Edwina Bartholomew are all popular with viewers.

Armytage’s colleagues were as bemused as I was when she claimed - wrongly - that I had “invented” a “bitchy” piece because Today was not winning the ratings war. Today is owned by Nine, publisher of this masthead.

But battle-weary Karl Stefanovic and his mates at Today can attest I give them no favours.

Meanwhile Monique Wright and Matt Doran were particularly impressive during their summer stint as Sunrise co-hosts, especially during their live coverage of the Capitol riots in which their years of news reporting came to the fore.

After a stellar run in the saddle, perhaps it really is time for Armytage to find new pastures in the bucolic Southern Highlands.