Joyce TV tell-all: ‘You can’t help who you fall in love with’

BARNABY Joyce and his staffer-turned-partner say their affair that cost him his family and the deputy prime ministership was “worth it” to welcome their baby son into the world.

In the controversial $150,000 tell-all interview, aired last night, the former Nationals leader hinted he still wanted to return to the frontbench even after the damage the scandal had done to the government.

Colleagues have been infuriated by Mr Joyce’s decision to grant a paid interview, with many urging him to keep out of the media spotlight after four months of drama.

But the fallout will continue today as an emotional Vikki Campion, who was pictured bathing their sevenweek-old son Sebastian, claimed government figures put “political pressure” on her to have an abortion. “They said if you don’t, they’re going to come after you,” she told Channel 7’s Sunday Night.

The pair were grilled about how their affair started when they worked together, with Ms Campion saying: “I couldn’t help it. You can’t help who you fall in love with.”

It comes as a four-month investigation into Mr Joyce’s use of expenses during the af- fair continues — even though the final report may never see the light of day.

Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority chief Annwyn Godwin told parliament the probe was “progressing quite well”, with details of his taxpayer-funded spending being crosschecked with details from “third parties”.

But she said the authority could choose to publish some or part of its final report, or that “they may not choose to publish at all”.

Mr Joyce said last week that Ms Campion decided to “make some money” out of the affair after being followed by photographers, even claiming drones had been flown over their house. “We tried just burning this out and that didn’t work,” he said.