Brooke Boney opens up about quitting Today and moving overseas

The Aussie presenter sensationally announced she was leaving her breakfast TV gig to study abroad. Now, a year on, Brooke Boney has opened up about her new life.

A year after announcing she was quitting her breakfast TV job, Brooke Boney has opened up about her new life in the UK.

The former Today news presenter, who joined Channel 9 in 2019, relocated to England late last year to take up an offer to study a Masters of Public Policy at Oxford University.

As she settles into her studies, Boney also found time to write a book, All of It, which the journalist officially announced in February. Set to hit stands in April, the book will cover off “notes on public life, private joy and everything in between.”

Speaking to Stellar, Boney gushed about her recent career pivot, saying her life felt “kind of surreal.”

Brooke Boney on the cover of this Sunday’s Stellar magazine.

“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,” Boney, 37, told the Stellar podcast Something To Talk About.

“It seemed so far out of the realm of possibility. It just doesn’t feel like it’s happening to me. I feel like I’ve stepped onto a different timeline.”

Listen to the full interview with Brooke Boney on Something To Talk About:

Boney concedes she anguished over making the decision to leave Today, fearing her colleagues would be “angry” at her, as she remembered the buzz of the newsroom the day she told viewers.

“The immediate response, from everyone, was just joy,” Boney remembered.

“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 then they were both really sad that I was leaving, and that was lovely, too.

“The morning of [the announcement], we’ve got run-downs of the show, 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 really go back after that. Once I’d said it out loud on TV, that’s it.”

Boney relocated to England after leaving Today.

The former breakfast presenter said her new life was “surreal”.

For all the highs that came with holding one of the top media jobs in the country, Boney, who is a proud Gamilaroi woman, said she struggled with negative reactions to her impassioned on-air opinions, particularly about race.

Just days into her then-new job on Today, Boney famously said she didn’t want to celebrate Australia Day on January 26, which sparked fierce controversy at the time.

“I learnt really quickly that so many people want to deliberately misinterpret things that you say because they don’t like you or don’t want to understand you,” Boney remembered.

“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.

“After a while I was like, I don’t know that the balance is there for me anymore if it kind of stacks up like this. This is not healthy. It felt a bit off kilter.”

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

For more from Stellar, click here.

Originally published as Brooke Boney opens up about quitting Today and moving overseas