Former Sunrise hose Sam Armytage has finally confirmed something that has been heavily speculated about; that she – along with other breakfast news hosts – have occasionally appeared “on air drunk”.
Back in 2009, Today host Karl Stefanovic appeared on a memorable news episode the morning after the Logies Awards where he appeared to be drunk. Although the host mentioned he was hungover during the episode, he later admitted that he was actually drunk.
“Back in 2009, I showed up to work allegedly a little tipsy after a big night at the Logies. Do you think less of me after this?’ he asked during an appearance on The Hundred with Andy Lee.
Now, Armytage has revealed that she too presented the morning news while intoxicated.
“I mean, hello, we’ve all be on air drunk,” Armytage said to Stefanovic, in the latest episode of her podcast, Something To Talk About that Stefanovic.
“I was sneaky, I didn’t get written up in the papers – nobody knew.”
Stefanovic responded, “Thank you, finally an admission! Karl gets awful admission out of Sam, ‘I was drunk too! Nobody noticed.’”
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Armytage hosted Sunrise alongside co-host David Koch from 2013 until 2021. She has previously revealed that she left the popular breakfast program for a number of reasons.
“There were many, many reasons,” she said on her podcast. “But one of the reasons was that I felt that the fun just wasn’t there anymore.”
“I was the lightning rod for the show at that point.
“Everything, I said was analysed and I was getting belted to death by the bloody Daily Mail and you just think: ‘Oh, is life worth this?’”
On her final day on Sunrise Armytage hinted that countless media articles about her encouraged her to step away from the lime light.
“I do want to say that I never fully understood some of the scrutiny and the snarky comments and bullying from some aspect of the media,” she said at the time.
“But today we move on from that because there is a new chapter starting and it has been overwhelmingly a good experience in my life,” she said.
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