Samantha Armytage would be in interior design if she wasn’t on TV. Photos: Chris McKeen Source: News Corp Australia
‘TO get more balance in my life” is Samantha Armytage’s New Year’s resolution.
It’s fair enough given the punishing schedule last year that left little in the tank. As well as the daily grind fronting Channel 7 breakfast TV show Sunrise, for seven months Armytage spent her weekends filming makeover series Bringing Sexy Back and penned Shine, her girl’s guide to life, over six months.
She’s since had a break, moved house and spent the Christmas holidays with her sister Georgie and her family in London, and is back on air refreshed and ready to take on 2015, albeit with some solid ground rules.
“Last year was completely and utterly manic at 100 million miles an hour, which is good for the adrenal glands but not so good for you as a well-rounded person,” Armytage, 37, says.
“Just doing Sunrise and getting up at 3.40 every morning is enough of a full-time job. I’m looking forward to keeping things at a better pace this year, not trying to do too much and doing things properly. Exercise and catching up with friends — all that stuff went out the window last year. This is my year to spend a bit more time living life.”
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The Sydneysider worked as a journalist for 16 years in regional TV, as a Canberra political correspondent and co-host of Weekend Sunrise before landing the prime Sunrise gig 18 months ago. The promotion to the chair alongside David “Kochie” Koch wasn’t without controversy or bad press when she replaced Melissa Doyle who had been in the job for 14 years.
Likable Sam Armytage resonates with Sunrise viewers. Photos: Chris McKeen Source: News Corp Australia
Rumours persisted that Doyle’s departure wasn’t voluntary and that, with network executives nervous about the impending launch of Channel 10’s new breakfast program, they had decided to axe “mumsy” Doyle for the younger, sexier Armytage.
While Ten’s Wake Up failed the fire and has since gone to TV heaven, Seven’s host gamble seems to have paid off in the ratings.
Armytage monitors Sunrise’s ratings but reckons there are people further up the network food chain “who are paid a lot more than me to worry about these things”.
Though Melbourne is Sunrise’s weakest market, the show mostly dominates Channel 9 competitor Today in the ratings, something Armytage teases her rival anchor Karl Stefanovic about. They’ve been mates since covering stories together 12 years ago and have the same manager.
“Occasionally I say to him, ‘Are you OK?’ and he tells me to eff off,” she says, laughing.
Sunrise executive producer Michael Pell, who also socialises with Armytage outside work, says the blonde resonates with viewers.
“Sam is a very likable TV host,” he says. “She’s relatable. She’s honest. And she has a wicked sense of humour. And she works very well with Kochie. Together, the two of them make mornings that much easier for Australia.”
Samantha Armytage and the Sunrise team. Source: Supplied
THE eldest of three kids, Armytage grew up on Bolaro Station, a 6500ha sheep and cattle station in the NSW Snowy Mountains, believed to be where Banjo Patterson wrote The Man from Snowy River. Her father, Mac, managed the property. (Her ancestors also lived in South Yarra’s historic Como House until 1969 when they sold it to the National Trust.)
She describes her childhood as idyllic but she was painfully shy and a daddy’s girl.
“I was always out with Dad in the paddocks or on a horse mustering, and could never speak to boys I was so shy. (My childhood) was very unsophisticated, which at the time I found a bit boring and dull, but I now realise how lucky we were and how wonderful it was on the Murrumbidgee River.
“It was a very free, outdoorsy, independent childhood. We were encouraged to be healthy and strong and sporty. There was no thought given to whether we were pretty. We weren’t encouraged to be beautiful, rather smart and well-read. It was the polar opposite to the television industry.”
Armytage attended Kincoppal-Rose Bay, a private girls’ boarding school in Sydney, before spending a gap year travelling overseas. She returned home to study communications at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst and soon after graduating, was snapped up by WIN Television in Canberra and then Sky News as a political correspondent. In 2003, after covering the Canberra bushfires, she was headhunted by Seven, where her star soon rose.
But with a burgeoning profile came criticism and gossip. Leaks emerged that Armytage had a short temper, was feuding with colleague Chris Bath, who she’d dubbed “Bath Vader”, and had fallen out with her styling team.
Sunrise host Samantha Armytage with her sister Georgie, from the family album. Picture: Instagram Source: Instagram
Armytage attributes the leaks ‒ claims she says are all untrue ‒ to tall-poppy syndrome.
“I was surprised by the attacks when I got the job (on Sunrise) and you go up a level. I was surprised by how many knives came out from people who maybe had had their day in the sun. It was pretty vicious.
“Defamatory comments are the worst because they’re unjust. You feel very wounded … but you see me every day, I couldn’t bulls---t for three hours every day of my life. You’d see it come through. The people who are leaking things are the ones who need to look at some of those criticisms themselves.”
She says she gets along with everyone at Seven and expects a high degree of professionalism from colleagues.
“I don’t shy away from the fact that I’m a perfectionist and expect a high quality of work around me from the hair and make-up team, from the wardrobe girls, from the producers because I give at least 100 per cent every day,” she says.
Sam Armytage mixing with school girls from her old Sacred Heart school Rose Bay-Kincoppal. Source: News Corp Australia
“I don’t consider myself to have a short temper. I think the people who want to compete with you and want to see you not do well will try and pick on anything they can including leaking to newspapers to bring you down.”
Armytage’s figure became a national hot topic during her time on DWTS. She admits she was bigger while on the show but like many woman, her weight fluctuates. It was toast-eating competitions at boarding school that saw her put on weight as a teen and that anger, boredom or sadness had led her to comfort eat in the past. She has to work hard to stay in shape but prides herself on being strong, healthy and rarely sick.
Despite the “horrendous” time she had on the TV dance-off (judge Todd McKenney told her to “move your arse” after a lacklustre rumba), she doesn’t regret doing the show, on which she placed a respectable fourth.
“Gossip writers are going to comment on some aspect of you so that’s what they’ve picked with me,” she says.
“I’m normal. And I’m not a model. I know I work in TV but so do 57,000 other people. I’m a journalist. I find obsession with appearance to be so dull. Can’t anyone talk about an interview I did, something I wrote or some belief of mine? I’m a size 12 with big boobs ‒ we all need to get over it.”
Sam would love to tend to a vegie garden in her old age. Photos: Chris McKeen Source: News Corp Australia
Appearing on DWTS also heralded increased paparazzi interest in Armytage. These days, she’s snapped grocery shopping, at the airport, getting her nails done.
“I dress up a bit more when I go out although not always — I still love my tracky daks. I’m bemused by it.”
Weirdly, it’s the pesky paps who provide a valuable litmus test for Armytage in her love life.
“I loathe the paparazzi following me around town and I’ve had ex-boyfriends who totally loved it and I knew they weren’t right because of that,” she says.
The famously single host regularly has viewers stop her on the street to set her up on blind dates, mainly older ladies offering up their sons. She fielded marriage proposals when her mobile phone number was accidentally shown live on air in 2013 and once found a box containing an “enormous” diamond ring in the pocket of her then beau which made her feel sick.
“If this is how the thought of a marriage proposal makes you feel, it’s a deal-breaker,” she wrote in her book, which was published late last year.
She’s remained single since splitting with playboy hotelier Peter De Angelis in 2012. A year earlier, she broke up with long-term builder boyfriend Sean. Since then she’s been linked to actor Russell Crowe, rapper Redfoo and Modern Family star Eric Stonestreet.
She says last year left her no time for love but this year she aims to tip her toe back into the dating pool. She’s philosophical about marriage and kids.
Last year Sam had a haircut, but has returned to her old look again. Picture: Ch7 Source: Supplied
“I saw Cameron Diaz, a confirmed bachelorette, got married the other day at 42 so you never know, do you?” she says. “Watch this space.”
“It’d be lovely to get married one of these days but I look at a few friends of mine who have really bad marriages and badly behaved children and think, ‘Oh my God’, so I don’t necessarily need marriage and kids for the sake of it.”
Writing Shine — a collection of life lessons and advice dedicated to her niece Lucia so she learns from “Auntie Sammie’s mistakes” — was like therapy for the presenter.
“I was approached to write a book and someone said, ‘Write what you know’, so I thought I’d do a girl’s guide to life because, you know, I’ve been around the block a few times. Writing it gave me a good chance to stocktake my life which was perhaps a good time to do it.”
In the book, Armytage candidly talks about everything from career tips and her exercise regimen to dating dickheads and how she quit smoking. She periodically sees a naturopath, acupuncturist, nutritionist, yoga teacher, personal trainer and life coach to keep both mind and body in tune.
She reckons she’d be an interior designer if the media game ever fell through.
“I’m passionate about homes. I inherited that from Mum,” she says. “I’ve just come back from London and most of the shopping I bought home was throw rugs and bath mats. Give me home furnishings over fashion any day.”
For the record, Armytage rejects Botox and would like to grow old gracefully — for now.
“I’d like to be one of those older ladies who lets their hair go grey naturally, and has a few lines, not too many — I don’t think entirely natural is necessary — but I don’t want to be one of those immovable faces of television,” she says.
“In my old age I’d like to have a vegie garden and time in my life to do things properly. And live with flair and just be content and present. Not rushed.”
And no alarms set to 3.40am.
SAM’S TOP 5
Coffee: Skinny flat white but only on weekends.
Binge watching:Offspring.
Hangover cure: Coke Zero and chips with gravy.
Tattoos: No. Would never.
Favourite beauty product: Nappy rash cream Bepanthen as a lip balm. It’s incredibly nourishing.
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Sunrise is on weekdays on Channel 7 from 6am
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