‘I thought that people would judge me for walking away’: Samantha Armytage on Sunrise and her new TV job

Two years after she left Sunrise, Samantha Armytage has opened up about her new TV job, leaving the drama behind – and her married life with her husband, Richard Lavender.

Two years after spectacularly ending her breakfast TV career, Samantha Armytage reveals in a new episode of the Stellar podcast Something To Talk About that she’s happy to be free from the mental drain of following the headlines – “I’m relieved I don’t have to talk about Harry and Meghan every day” – and fulfilled by a shift in focus to her new life with husband Richard Lavender.

As she joins him for a special photo shoot at their farm in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Armytage talks about returning to her rural roots, the warm reception she still receives from the public and her bemusement about her new hosting role on Farmer Wants A Wife: “I don’t want to be one of those smug marrieds, always trying to set everyone up. But, you know, that is my job right now”

On posing with her husband Richard Lavender – whom she married in late 2020 – for this week’s Stellar cover at their Southern Highlands farm in rural New South Wales:

“He actually enjoys this stuff more than I do. So hopefully I haven’t created a monster here. This is not his world. And if you can believe it, he’s even more honest than me in interviews. I get into trouble for being too honest in interviews. Well, he’s next level on that. So this is a big thing for [a] normal civilian, to do photo shoots and interviews. I have had 25 years in media to prepare for it, and I’m still not very good at it. So I’m mindful; I try to protect him from it. I put it to him: Stellar wants us for this. Do you want to do it? And if he’d said no, I would have respected that. I think …”

Richard Lavender: ‘We have been enjoying what’s in front of us. It’s been really good.’ Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

On settling into her new day-to-day routine on the farm, and her relationship with Lavender: “I think we make a good match. I was very lucky to find him at that point in my life. As we speak, it’s pretty busy, but that’s OK, because it’s balanced out by quieter times, which is what I was trying to achieve in my career, rather than that grind that I had. We’ve been filming Farmer Wants A Wife since November [Armytage hosts the Seven Network reality TV show], so it’s been quite busy since then. But once that goes to air, we may have a little break, go overseas or something, have a little holiday. So there’s balance. You know, I feel like I’m at a point in my career and in my life where I deserve that.”

Richard Lavender, on the changes he has seen in his wife since she married him, walked away from her co-hosting role on breakfast television show Sunrise in March 2021, and chose to base herself in the country with him:

“She’s always been a happy person while I have been around her. There’s been a lot said about that stuff but, honestly, I think she was just looking for something a bit different when she met me. We have been enjoying what’s in front of us. It’s been really good. She’s a country girl, so it hasn’t been such a huge adjustment.”

Samantha Armytage: ‘But I’m very proud of myself for doing it. And I’m quite chuffed at how people have reacted.’ Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

On what she hears from friends (or the general public) about her choice to end her breakfast TV career:

“I thought that people would judge me for walking away from a huge job because it’s inside the media. So many people want those jobs that, when you walk away from a big one, everyone goes, what?! But I’m very proud of myself for doing it. And I’m quite chuffed at how people have reacted; and by that I mean my friends and family and also people I don’t know on the street. I haven’t been on air for two years, so people could have forgotten me. I still will be having drinks with girlfriends and they’ll say, ‘Good on you, we’ve got your back and we’re so glad you can stay up now – it’s 8pm and you’re still out of bed!’ And then people on the street, viewers and listeners, people are so divine. They’ve just been so supportive. I love the fact that people will still lean over the trolleys in Woolies and grab me on the arm and say, ‘I really miss you and I’m so happy you’re happy.’”

On remaining in the headlines despite no longer being on breakfast TV, and how she has handled the surge of media attention now that she is returning to a hosting role on Farmer Wants A Wife:

“It’s life, isn’t it? You know, as soon as you dip a toe back in the water and you’re back on television, the attention flares up. My instant reaction to that is anxious. But as Rich pointed out to me the other day, you’ve got to be flattered that they care. And this whole clickbait

thing with me? People will write stupid stuff about me just to put a picture there so people will click on it. There was an article the other day that a house I sold two property cycles ago had gone for an extraordinary amount of money and how I’d missed out. And I was like, hang on, two people have owned that house since … how would I have? It was a nothing story, as many of them are. That’s the business. And I guess it’s flattering. I don’t know how else to deal with that. I suppose the day you’re not being written about is the day you’d better go and write that book under a pen name to pay the bills. The attention doesn’t sit comfortably with me, but I think I handle it better now than I used to.”

On whether she feels relief at not being a regular presence on television, particularly at a time when media personalities and broadcasters run the risk of being cancelled for sharing their viewpoints:

“Well, I’m a very outside observer these days, so I wouldn’t throw stones. I’m not in there having a go anymore, and I’mrelieved not to be. And I’m relieved I don’t have to talk about Harry and Meghan every day. That is a giant relief to me. I’m very choosy about where I get my news from these days. I don’t consume a lot of it. I do enough to be well informed and [have] good dinner party conversation. When you’re working in it full-time, you have to be across all of it. And I don’t think that’s terribly healthy. So I’ve taken a big step back from that. It’s quite enjoyable.”

Samantha at home (and on set) with Stellar. Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar.

Richard Lavender and Samantha Armytage at their Southern Highlands farm in rural New South Wales.

On whether friends or acquaintances have asked her if they should also move to the country to find love, or if she finds herself playing Cupid when the cameras stop rolling, given she now hosts Farmer Wants A Wife, which has a matchmaking element:

“We’re mid-40s now, and I do still have a few single girlfriends. And Rich is worse than me – he’s always like, ‘Look, who can we set her up with?’ I’m like, ‘No, maybe not … ’ I don’t want to become one of those smug marrieds where you’re always trying to set everyone up. But, you know, that is my job on television right now.”

On how Farmer Wants A Wife showcases the beauty and uniqueness of regional and rural Australia, and what that means to viewers at home – particularly those who may be looking for a romantic partner:

“The premise of this show is city girls who are fed up with the city and fed up with dating city men, who want the romance of the land and the romance of dating a country man. I can tell you, country men are fantastic. They’re so capable, they’re gorgeous, they’re wonderful to be around. It’s a great lifestyle … A lot of girls I knew and went to school with were going back to the country and marrying farmers because that’s where a lot of us came from. And a lot of city girls I know were [marrying] farmers, as well. So what you have now is this richness of talent in the regions and young women with huge careers who’ve moved back to the bush, still running businesses and contributing to their communities in huge and dynamic ways. I don’t think the regions get as much attention or credit as they should, because there is a huge amount going on out there. I hear it a lot from my friends: can you please tell your mates in the media to follow up on this or that? That would be the only thing I miss about having a daily platform – that I can’t champion the bush as much as I used to. But I still do it in my own way. It’s so dynamic in the regions. It’s not like it was in my mother’s day, when a lot of country women were just at home. It’s totally different now.”

On whether she has ever considered writing her memoirs:

“God. Can you imagine my memoirs? No, I don’t think I could write a memoir at 46. But I contemplate a book all the time. I mean, you are my editor. I work for you and I am late with my [Stellar] column every month! Can you imagine being a publisher dealing with me? But there’s no excuse, because I do have the time now. And I would love to do a fiction book. But I just don’t know if I’m brave [enough] … It’s in me somewhere, but I haven’t really found it yet.”

Farmer Wants A Wife premieres tomorrow at 7pm on Seven Network and 7plus.

Samantha Armytage and husband Richard Lavender star on the cover of this Sunday’s Stellar. Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar.

Originally published as ‘I thought that people would judge me for walking away’: Samantha Armytage on Sunrise and her new TV job