Sharyn Ghidella: Axed 7 star’s heartbreaking admission

Popular newsreader Sharyn Ghidella has spoken out in a candid interview after her brutal sacking from Channel 7 after 17 years service.

Sharyn Ghidella has spoken out for the first time since her high profile sacking from Channel 7.

The popular Brisbane newsreader was shown the door earlier this month in what came as a shock to fans.

She vanished from screens after declining to say goodbye on-air, a decision she’s said was her choice.

“I think it was the emotional side of it,” she told The Courier Mail.

“I was not certain I could keep my emotions in check. I didn’t want to be on air, trying to communicate the news, which is a very serious business, if I was not completely composed.

“If I’d made mistakes, if my voice had a wobble in it, that’s not professional and our viewers deserve better than that.”

Channel 7 Brisbane newsreader Sharyn Ghidella reading her final news bulletin earlier this month.

Ms Ghidella decided to keep her final bulletin professional after confirming news of her sacking in a Facebook post.

Instead, her colleague Max Futcher paid tribute to the star in an emotional farewell.

“First tonight, she didn’t want a farewell, and she’s too humble to want us to make a fuss. But we would like to thank Sharyn Ghidella for her 17 wonderful years behind the desk here at 7News Brisbane,” he said.

“A true professional, an accomplished journalist, and for all of us here – a friend and mentor. And my good mate.

“We know Sharyn has also been a big part of your lives, and we know she sees that role as a great privilege.

“Sharyn leaves with our respect, our admiration, and wishes for an amazing future. Love you Shaz.”

Brisbane newsreader Sharyn Ghidella had worked at the network for 17 years.

Ms Ghidella said that she received news of her sacking in the hairdresser and it was “not quite the chop I was hoping for”.

“It wasn’t quite how I expected it to end at Channel 7,” she said.

“I was actually sitting at the hairdressers for work, when I got the call informing me, that after 17 years with the network, my time was up.”

Ms Ghidella said she knew one day that she would get the “proverbial tap on the shoulder” having watched “better people than me” lose their jobs.

“It was Ita Buttrose who said, ‘You haven’t worked in television until you’ve been sacked’,” she said.

The call, when it did come, wasn’t shocking but it was sad.

“I kind of thought after 38 years, this isn’t how I wanted it to end, and the hardest thing for me to actually accept was that I had given all that service for that long, and then that was how it ended,” Ms Ghidella said.

“I think sadness is the biggest emotion for me right now,” she said.

“It’s the sadness of losing my wonderful friends in a work capacity, it’s the sadness of losing my connection to the viewers, and it’s my sadness that after 38 years I was fired.

“People get fired from their jobs every single day, and I guess when you’ve been somewhere a long time and it happens, there is a sense of, ‘Well, what on earth was all that for?’ And I think for anyone who’s experienced that in any field, it’s something you have to wrap your head around.”

Ms Ghidella said she was not a fan of 7’s rebranding of its news programming, which includes comedian Mark Humphries doing regular skits and an astrology segment.

“I’m also not one to have my evening news served up with humour and horoscopes either, so, to be honest, it is time to go,” she added.

Originally published as Sharyn Ghidella: Axed 7 star’s heartbreaking admission