Sarah’s voyage of self-discovery After her own battles, Studio 10’ s Sarah Harris is not afraid to stand up for herself and others on live TV

After her own private battles, morning talk show host Sarah Harris is not afraid to stand up for herself and others on live TV. She’s proud to be a presenter who’s leading conversations and setting the agenda.

SSarah Harris is the kind of person that you could imagine sitting next to if you were on one of those long, slow train journeys. The chat comes so easily that, before you know it, you’re exchanging confidences and, within an hour, it’s as if you’ve just made a new bestie. It’s this very warm essence that has made Sarah such a popular fixture on Studio 10, the morning talk show on Network Ten. Off-camera, with her hair pulled back into a ponytail, her features appear finer and softer than under the bright studio lights. But she radiates the same vibrance she does on the telly, which is quite something, given she’s been up since 5.30am and it’s now mid-afternoon. But hey, that’s pretty normal for any working mum – and Sarah, 38, is cheerfully resigned to the challenges of this life phase, which she describes as “being in the trenches”. Her battle ground will seem familiar to many mums: juggling caring for two small boys – Harry, just 18 months old, and Paul, three

– and a job that she loves dearly but is incredibly demanding. Studio 10 is a three-and-a-half-hour marathon of live television, with nowhere to hide if you’re having a brain fog after being up all night with a teething child.

“I read a great quote recently: ‘People expect women to work like they don’t have kids and parent like they don’t have a job,’ ” she says.

“I constantly feel that I’m dropping the ball. It might be that I stuff up on air – a mistake that only I notice, or I won’t quite catch something at home. At the moment, my three-year-old will not eat a vegetable – crackers are all he wants to eat – and I start catastrophising and thinking, ‘Oh, my God, he’s going to end up with scurvy and he won’t grow properly and I’m the worst mother in the world!’ So I constantly feel like I’m failing in one area of my life.”

PARENTING DILEMMAS

It’s gratifying to hear a woman being this open and honest about the “trench-warfare years”.

And in case you still have a starry view of life as a TV personality, Sarah says, “It’s not Instagram, you know. Half the time, I’m feeding my kids food out of a packet and heating it up in the microwave. They don’t care if I haven’t spent three-and-a-half hours making it on a stove. Sometimes, you just have to take the path of least resistance.”

She sighs. “Sometimes I think, ‘I wish I could stay at home.’ But financially, I can’t; I need to bring in a second income.” (Her husband, Tom Ward, runs an IT company.) And I do really like my job. For me, that outlet makes me a better mum. I’m more present when I’m with the boys and I really make a conscious effort to put down the mobile phone when I’m with them.”

Sarah’s outlook was shaped by her early childhood, growing up with a single mum in a Housing Commission flat in Sydney’s tough Mt Druitt. As a result, she developed a strong sense of resilience early on. “I’ve always been a slightly anxious person, and I’ve got a simmering sense of anxiety that’s always there,” Sarah reveals. “I find the best thing is to just get out and get some fresh air, whether that’s saying to Tom, ‘I just need to go for a walk,’ and chucking on a podcast and having that time to myself, or whether it’s taking the kids and pushing that double-pram around my very hilly suburb. The whole thing weighs about 30 kilos – that’s quite an intense workout, but you feel good and you feel energised afterwards.”

The other thing Sarah’s learned about herself? “I’m very competitive with myself,” she admits. Last year that enthusiasm and drive saw her push too hard in a Pilates class and resulted in two bulging discs. “For six months, I couldn’t bend over without wincing in pain. It gave me a little taste of what it might be like to live with ill health. It was hard on the body, the mind and the soul.

“Thankfully, I had this great session with a chiropractor and he seemed to set everything straight. I’m not a huge believer in alternative medicine, but this person just worked wonders on me. That gave me a really good wake-up call and it motivated me to get back to the gym, to really work hard on my pelvic floor, and to be doing exercise for the right reasons – to make sure that my body is strong enough to run after two little kids, to pick them up and throw the ball with them. It was an important lesson I learned.”

I’M AN EMOTIONAL EATER’

With it has come a new attitude towards every aspect of health, including diet. “For me, the secret to eating well is to be well prepared. Twice a week I make these egg and vegetable frittatas and chuck them in the fridge.” Sarah totes these to the studio and munches on them during the ad breaks to keep her energy up until lunchtime. She also tries to eat a healthy salad for lunch and dinner. “If I can do that four nights a week, I’m really happy.”

I’ve always been slightly anxious, and I find the best thing is just to get out and go for a walk.

Now I exercise for the right reasons – so my body is strong enough to run after my two little kids.

“I’m an emotional eater and my weight can fluctuate up or down a dress size,” Sarah continues. “There’ll be times when I come home and I’m feeling really flat. Then I can eat half a loaf of bread with honey and butter to pick me up.

“Carbs hate me. If I could eat pastries and bread all day I would, but there’s something about my biochemistry that they just blow me up. My body works and looks better when I’m on a high-protein and vegetable diet. And I do find my brain works better when I’ve got that clean energy in my body.

“But I know that if I’m hit by an especially busy week and I haven’t prepared for it, I’ll just grab whatever I can to lift me up. So I like to make sure things are prepped, and that way I’m less likely to make a mistake. But I’m human. I hate reading about women saying they always eat fish and salad for dinner. I think when you start to aim for perfection is when you fall down.”

A CHAMPION FOR WOMEN

It’s not so long ago that women on TV were expected to be model-thin. But in her long career, Sarah insists management has never made any comments criticising her weight. “Certainly, the harshest critic was me. In my head. Telling me I was horrible and shouldn’t be on TV.”

And so Sarah has become a great champion for a more realistic approach to what we expect of ourselves and of others. When paparazzi shots of a pregnant Sarah, dressed down and without any makeup, were posted on the Daily Mail Australia website, Sarah made a point of calling them out on Studio 10.

“This is me and this is how I get around,” she said. “That’s what I look like. I hope those photos of me make other women who are pregnant feel better about their bodies. I’m kind of fed up with the body shaming and then the pressure that comes afterwards to lose the baby weight.”

MORE BODY CONFIDENT

Today, Sarah tells Prevention, “Five years ago, just before my wedding, I was whippet thin and probably slightly unhappy. I feel like I’ve got so much more respect for my body now. Kids are amazing at teaching you body confidence and helping you realise that you’re not going to look the same as you did when you were 25. I feel like my body is stronger. It’s birthed two very big babies. I’m proud of what it can do.”

Sarah says times have changed for women who work in TV. “They aren’t just dollybirds there to look good and say nothing. We are the ones leading the conversations, driving the agenda and having opinions. What comes out of our mouth is more important than the size of our bum. Which is a great place to be.”