Trailblazing Hilary I'M IN MY PRIME OF LIFE!

The beloved TV host tells why it’s important for women to be themselves and explains why she has never felt so free

- Marilynn McLachlan 

Hilary Barry has a lot to celebrate. As she chats to the Weekly from her Auckland home, she fist pumps the air with both hands and declares she’s embracing every moment of being an empty nester now that sons Finn, 21, and Ned, 19, have moved away to study at university.

But while it’s a significant milestone, it’s not the only change that has swept through her life this year. She is – touch wood – coming out the other side of menopause, while her professional life shows no signs of slowing down. Already beaming into homes each weeknight on TVNZ 1’s Seven Sharp, she’s also done a stint on The Hits filling in for Laura McGoldrick while she was on maternity leave. And now, Hilary is set to hit our screens in a new role on New Zealand’s version of the popular charades game Give Us a Clue.

“It’ll be a rollicking good time for the whole family,” she tells. “All of this work has been kind of accidental because I wasn’t looking for more gigs. But they came at a good time because I actually had the time to do them.”

Careful to preface any conversation about her boys moving out of home with how much she loves them, Hilary can’t contain her joy.

“As much as we miss them, we are loving our life,” she says of the time she and her husband Mike, 55, now share. “It has been really lovely just to have space again. There’s food in the fridge when we want it, we run out of milk a lot less and there’s a lot less washing!”

More time has meant slower starts to their weekends that used to be filled with taking their sons to sport.