Samantha Armytage has opened up on life after the breakfast television show in the first in-depth interview she’s given since leaving Sunrise in March of the previous year.
The media icon, who was interviewed by Stellar as the cover subject for this week’s issue, didn’t hold back when asked whether or not she would consider returning to the show.
“There’s no way I’d ever go back.
In life, you never take steps backward.
You’ve got to keep going forwards.”
She went on to say that since she left television and began hosting her own podcast, News Corp’s Something To Talk About with Samantha Armytage, she has experienced “fear” in the mainstream media environment.
When I listen to the radio or the television, I find that no one ever says what they mean.
“Everyone’s walking this tightrope because they fear they’ll say the wrong thing and the mob will descend on them, and that’s not journalism, and it’s not what I was paid to do back in the old days,” the journalist said.
“Everyone’s walking this tightrope because they fear they’ll say the wrong thing and the mob will descend on them.”
“I can’t tell you the number of strangers who approach me on the street and say, ‘Oh my God, I miss you so much.
You always said the exact thing I thought when I was at home.’
“And, look, I don’t know if I’d be permitted to do that these days,” she said, “but let’s just say that.”
Armytage says that using her podcast as an outlet to escape “commercial television brainwashing” and engage in in-depth conversations with guests has been a really positive development.
Armytage refuted a remark made by Kyle Sandilands earlier this year that Sunrise was a “silent protest” against her and her former coworkers. She did so by pointing out that she never watches Sunrise.
Last year, Armytage left Channel 7, less than two weeks after making the statement in an interview that the television profession is filled with narcissists.