Behind the tears and emotion on Monday morning, television host Samantha Armytage has been at the centre of an internal storm at the top-rating breakfast show for months, a storm which has split the once tight-knit Sunrise team and divided loyalties within billionaire Kerry Stokes’ multimillion-dollar TV machine.
Sunrise host Samantha Armytage and new husband Richard Lavender.Credit:Getty
Armytage’s bosses have become increasingly frustrated by the situation, and what they see as her “cavalier” approach to critics.
Her approach has also cost friendships at Seven, including her once former tight relationship with Sunrise executive producer Michael Pell.
Today senior sources at Seven remain adamant that despite the bad blood on set, Armytage - who remains under contract with Seven until the end of the year and recently hired the latest in a long line of talent managers to handle her career - would have a place on the network if she desired one.
But it was also made clear that if she did return, it would not be to the lucrative breakfast television slot where she had reigned for the past eight years after de-throning former co-host Melissa Doyle in another blaze of headlines.
Her replacement will be unveiled on Thursday.
Armytage, who is estimated to be making $800,000 a year from Seven, is taking an “extended” leave of absence and admitted the past few months had seen some of the greatest highs and lows in her personal life, from losing her mother to cancer last year, to marrying Bowral farmer Richard Lavender on New Year’s Eve.
However it is unclear if that leave will be for a month, six months, a year or permanent, Seven sources indicating on Monday that it was “entirely up to Sam”.
Just over a week ago Armytage declared to the nation – via the Murdoch press – that breakfast television is “full of sociopaths and narcissists – it can be a dangerous environment, let me tell you.”
She also claimed that as an unwed, childless woman she had been discriminated against, claiming: “Bosses don’t ask as much of you if you’re a wife or mother.”
Her comments left deep wounds among the hard-working wives and mothers at Seven’s Martin Place bunker.
The Sunrise “family”: Natalie Barr, Samantha Armytage, David Koch, Mark Beretta and Edwina Bartholomew.Credit:Seven
One senior Seven executive described Armytage’s comments as “professional kamikaze”, while several other colleagues who spoke to PS were fuming, revealing – on the grounds of anonymity – that working mums had been treated just the same as anyone else.
“Look at Natalie Barr, she regularly drops everything to cover a story with no complaints, and she’s got two teenage boys at home. Sam’s got a dog,” one bluntly commented.
Andrew Hornery is a senior journalist and Private Sydney columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.
Most Viewed in Culture
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMieWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnNtaC5jb20uYXUvY3VsdHVyZS90di1hbmQtcmFkaW8vd2h5LXNhbWFudGhhLWFybXl0YWdlLWhhZC1uby1jaG9pY2UtYnV0LXRvLWxlYXZlLXN1bnJpc2UtMjAyMTAzMDgtcDU3OG8wLmh0bWzSAXlodHRwczovL2FtcC5zbWguY29tLmF1L2N1bHR1cmUvdHYtYW5kLXJhZGlvL3doeS1zYW1hbnRoYS1hcm15dGFnZS1oYWQtbm8tY2hvaWNlLWJ1dC10by1sZWF2ZS1zdW5yaXNlLTIwMjEwMzA4LXA1NzhvMC5odG1s?oc=5
2021-03-07 23:48:01Z
52781422814395
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar