Matt's rural return I'VE FIGURED OUT WHAT HAPPINESS IS

The troubled TV star has found his purpose again, back on the land, bringing up his kids with his gorgeous wife Ellen by his side

- Fleur Guthrie

With a baby girl due in September, compiling research for a Country Calendar story and building a “forever home” on their Otago farmlet about to start, Matt Chisholm is pinching himself.

After a well-documented struggle with depression and a yearning for the country life, the popular journalist is at long last in his happy place, negotiating his rural roots while keeping a foot in the television industry.

“I’m finally living both lives and that’s always what I’ve dreamed of doing,” beams Matt, 44, with “his shepherdess” wife Ellen, 37, sitting beside him during a chat with the Weekly.

“I can’t describe how rewarding it is for me, going out and doing what I call farming – but what other farmers might call mucking around. It does something for me. Even if it’s a freezing, wet, boggy day, I just love it. It fills my cup.

“I really enjoy waking up in the morning, which I didn’t used to, starting my day with an instant coffee and mucking around with my kids, before I go down to the land. I’m present and enjoying just being. Maybe I’ve finally figured out what happiness is all about.”

It’s a stark contrast to previous years where, filled with self-doubt about his abilities, Matt felt like an “imposter in the newsroom” and tried to compensate for it by over-working and being a perfectionist.

Whether it was filing stories for Seven Sharp, Fair Go and Sunday or hosting Survivor and Celebrity Treasure Island, behind the smiling face on our screens there was inner turmoil, sadness and burn-out.

By the end of 2018, he met his last work deadline and collapsed.