Being Bernadine ‘I'm still learning every day'

The new AM presenter talks to Emma Clifton about raising teenagers, yelling at the television and what Angela D’Audney taught her.

- Emma Clifton

Bernadine OliverKerby is not one for a life hack or a “secret to my success” kind of story. The much-lauded idea of work-life balance? Not a thing. Advice on having a successful and happy long-term marriage? Zero hints here, she laughs.

But there is a long-standing secret weapon to maintaining decades of being an early-morning shift worker and it’s the least surprising weapon of all. “It’s called a Nespresso machine,” she deadpans. “And I have two of them.”

Later on in her chat with The Australian Women’s Weekly, she’ll admit to actually owning three of them. “But three seems greedy,” grins Bernadine, who’s waiting to install one at her new desk at Discovery, as part of her role as news and sports presenter for Three’s rebooted breakfast show AM.

“It’s early days,” she says, joking about wanting to make a good impression. “I haven’t been brave enough yet.”

Bernadine is one of those rare creatures who vibrates with so much energy, you could get a contact caffeine high if you stood too close to her. On the day of our get-together, she’s come straight from the studio and is about to head into the second shift that will be familiar to all working parents – getting ready for an evening with her husband Mark and their two children, Maisey, 14, and Scarlett, 12.

She is all guns blazing as she and her new colleagues settle into their new roles on AM. Bernadine has joined Ryan Bridge, Melissa ChanGreen and William Waiirua on the morning show, and the main theme of the watercooler chats over the past few weeks has revolved around one thing – sleep.