Natalie Barr ''The boys are my life''

With two teenage sons, raising boys has always been an important part of Natalie Barr’s life. Now those boys are pressing for openness and conversations about consent to become a family discussion, and the Sunrise co-host couldn’t be prouder.

- MICHAEL SHEATHER

There are few more heartwarming experiences as a mother than that moment when your child returns the lessons they’ve learned at your side. Natalie Barr, the newly appointed co-host of market-leading Seven Network morning show Sunrise, encountered one of those moments on February 22 this year, when she received a telephone call from her 19-year-old son Lachlan.

Agitated and deeply affected, Lachlan told Natalie about a stunning online campaign created by Chanel Contos, a former schoolgirl who had posted a poll on Instagram asking if any Sydney girls had experienced or knew someone who had experienced sexual assault or had their consent abused.

“Lachlan said, ‘You have got to have a look at this, and we’ll get Hunter to have a look at this, too,’” recalls Natalie, 53, whose other son Hunter is 16.

“There’s this girl, and I know her,” Lachlan continued. “And I know people who she knows. This has blown up on the internet and there are so many posts. She posted this amazing thing online. It’s amazing and it’s horrifying at the same time. You have to read it.”

What Natalie encountered when she read Chanel’s post was indeed horrifying. Seventy per cent of respondents alleged they had been assaulted or sexually exploited in one way or another by boys from private schools in Sydney, and more than 17,000 young women eventually provided anonymous testimony.