Celebrity hasn’t always been a comfortable fit for country girl Sam Armytage. But, in an honest and exclusive conversation with Ingrid Pyne, the Sunrise host suggests that life, love and self-respect all feel so much easier in her forties.
Heading into the city on the ferry for this interview with Samantha Armytage, I get a call from my mum. “Just don’t make it about her weight,” she suggests, which is funny because several months earlier, when Sam was on the phone to her mum, Mrs (Elizabeth) Armytage advised the exact opposite.
So here we are, at a cafe near the Seven Network’s studios in Sydney’s Martin Place, happily discussing Sam’s waistline, a national obsession that the popular breakfast television host has until now stewed, blued and even sued over.
“Wow. A newspaper bullying a woman about her weight – I thought those days were gone!” she tweeted in 2014, after The Daily Telegraph ran a spread on her fashion mishaps. Then, of course, there was the time she set her lawyers onto The Daily Mail after their bullying, bodyshaming jibe at her “granny panties”.
But today the topic of Sam’s weight is very much on the table (alongside a virtuous pot of peppermint tea) because the Sunrise host is chatting exclusively to The Weekly about her new role as Australian ambassador for WW, or Weight Watchers as it used to be known.
Sam, 42, is fully aware that this unexpected partnership could have naysayers accusing her of hypocrisy. Why take on a role that will guarantee scrutiny of her weight after years of chastising the media for doing just that?
“Do you know what? My weight is already scrutinised,” Sam says pragmatically. “I understand there will be more scrutiny that comes with this … but the paparazzi are always already trying to take pictures of [me] where there is a fat roll showing. My mother said to me, ‘Darling, for Godsake, if they are already sitting outside your house taking pictures of you putting the bins out, why not just talk about it?’”
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة June 2019 من The Australian Women's Weekly.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة June 2019 من The Australian Women's Weekly.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Hitting a nerve
Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes - could aid physical and mental wellbeing.
Take me to the river
With a slew of new schedules and excursions to explore, the latest river cruises promise to give you experiences and sights you won’t see on the ocean.
The last act
When family patriarch Tom Edwards passes away, his children must come together to build his coffin in four days, otherwise they will lose their inheritance. Can they put their sibling rivalry aside?
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.
The wines and lines mums
Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.
Jenny Liddle-Bob.Lucy McDonald.Sasha Green - Why don't you know their names?
Indigenous women are being murdered at frightening rates, their deaths often left uninvestigated and widely unreported. Here The Weekly meets families who are battling grief and desperate for solutions.
Growing happiness
Through drought flood and heartbreak, Jenny Jennr's sunflowers bloom with hope, sunshine and joy
"Thank God we make each other laugh"
A shared sense of humour has seen Aussie comedy couple Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall conquer the world. But what does life look like when the cameras go down:
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of Australian apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the midwinter blues away.
Budget dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of low-cost recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.