WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE CAMERAS STOPPED ROLLING…
Fan insisted the tension was palpable. Now, insiders tell us what really went on
It wasn’t just the hot studio lights making everyone sweat as Samantha Armytage sat down on the Sunrise sofa to chat with her TV replacement Natalie Barr on April 12. Fans were quick to claim they were picking up on some tension between the former co-stars.
AWKWARD ENCOUNTER
“She looks SO happy to be there,” one viewer commented sarcastically of Sam, who was appearing on the brekkie show she quit in 2021 to promote the new series of Farmer Wants A Wife.
Indeed, while Sam declared, “back on the couch... it’s nice to be back” as she joined Nat and co-host Matt Shirvington – with two of this year’s farmers, Dustin and Bert – some viewers suggested her smile seemed a little forced.
Nat, of course, admitted in 2021 she and Sam “got along very well in the o ce, for sure” but weren’t friends when they worked together on the Seven show.
“e truth is we didn’t really see each other outside the o ce,” the mother-of-two revealed after Sam’s departure.
“We had vastly di erent lives, I guess. We were in di erent places. She was hanging with her friends and I was spending time with my family. So, yes, we were in di erent places.”
Sam, 47, seemingly took o ence at Nat’s comments at the time and was declared “snarky” when she took to Twitter soon after, writing, “Look, I’m out. Nat’s wanted the job forever... and she’s nally got it. She just needs to get on and enjoy it
– and forget about me (even though
I’m unforgettable).”
Nat, 56, kept a digni ed silence at the time, and sources say she took the same approach when it came to facing Sam on screen last week.
A Seven insider insists any tension people thought they saw was watered down by a desire to be aligned as network stars, despite past awkwardness.
PLAYING NICE
“When Nat found out the week before that she would be coming on, she just copped
it on the chin and, as Nat does with everything, she decided to be professional and pleasant and – as she suggested to one insider – not overthink it,” a TV insider tells Woman’s Day.
“at said, you could sense from her body language that she was feeling a little bit tense. ankfully, Nat and Shirvo are so tight and Shirvo probably picked up that Nat wasn’t 100 per cent comfortable with being on the same set as Sam, and he was there to support her.”
e source points out that while Nat just seemingly chatted away happily to Sam and the farmers, one thing everyone close to her knows is that she wouldn’t make much of a poker player! “A few times her facial expressions literally said it all – it was like she just wanted the segment over, knowing it’ll be another year before Sam is back on to promote next year’s Farmer Wants A Wife,” says the insider. Or so she thinks... “e thing worrying a few members of the Sunrise team is that Sam is actually going to be popping up later in the year for another secret project she has been reportedly working on,” says the source.
But a Seven representative insists the women are consummate professionals and always put their work above any past issues.
“ey chatted when Nat came o air,” the rep told Woman’s Day last week. “ey were also o ering each other support and kind words in the wake of their colleague Nathan Templeton’s passing.”
‘She decided to be professional and pleasant’