THE STORY OF US
THE SEVEN NEWSREADER AND HIS WIFE ON LOVE AND MARRIAGE
It was a case of lost in translation when awardwinning Seven News presenter Mike Amor met his American wife Tracy at a barbecue in California almost two decades ago.
“I was definitely attracted to him at the party, but then he asked if he could walk me home,” recalls Tracy with a smile. “I got offended and said, ‘Absolutely not!’ In America, when you ask if you can walk somebody home, it generally has a different meaning!”
“And I was just trying to be a gentleman,” a laughing Mike, 50, recalls. Fortunately, Tracy gave Mike – who for 18 years held the role of Seven’s United States bureau chief – the benefit of the doubt. And, from then, there was no looking back.
“Our first date was lovely,” says Tracy, 51. “It was at a little Italian restaurant, and the first thing Michael told me when we sat down was that the dinner might be ending abruptly if he had to rush off to work. That was my first indication that this might be how things would be if we began dating – and, in fact, it was. For the next 18 years, Mike spent about 50 to 70 per cent of the year on the road. But he did warn me on that first date, and we made it through the evening.”
Indeed, in his time as bureau chief, Mike covered everything from multiple US elections to the September 11 attacks in New York. “Mike was already working in New York at the time of the attacks,” says Tracy, who became concerned when Channel Seven couldn’t contact Mike initially. “We weren’t married yet, and it was certainly a time that drew us very close together and really solidified things for us. We realised we wanted to marry and spend the rest of our lives together. The world in general has changed since then and there have been many dangerous stories that Michael has covered,” continues Tracy.
“One of the main ways we coped through them was not to place too much emphasis on them at the time. We just focused on each other and our family and on the moment. We don’t speak about the danger until after the events are over.”
On Dec. 29, 2002, in Mike’s Australian hometown of Bendigo in Victoria, Tracy and Mike exchanged vows. “We wanted our families to have a really Aussie experience, and they did,” says Tracy. “We took over an 1800s sheep farm that had been converted into a homestead and it was so lovely.”
“And my mother-in-law cleared the shelves of the local supermarket of bug spray because she saw a couple of huntsman spiders,” laughs Mike.
Eleven years ago, the couple welcomed their beautiful son Addison. As Tracy says: “He is the greatest joy of our lives.”
And with his family by his side, Mike recently returned to Australia as Seven News Melbourne’s weekend presenter.
“One of the great joys of moving to Melbourne is that Mike comes home from work at the same time every day,” says Tracy. “Australia is definitely home now.”
Adds Mike: “I also feel so fortunate to have had the career I’ve had so far, and now I’m ready for this new challenge. It’s a wonderful opportunity.”
As for the future? “We’d even like to do some more travelling – but this time as a family of tourists,” says Tracy.