Glamorous TV newsreader’s ‘last-minute dash’ to Sydney on NYE sparks spicy rumour: LUCY MANLY reveals why one surprising yacht guest had all the socialites talking

‘Welcoming 2025 with a last-minute dash to Sydney for a night on the water! Bucket-list item ticked off. So spectacular and so much fun.

‘Thank you @stulaundy44.’

And so, with 27 words and a few champagne and fireworks emojis, bubbly 7News Queensland newsreader Samantha Heathwood sent the eastern suburbs rumour mill into overdrive on New Year’s Day.

Posing against the stunning backdrop of the harbour, Samantha’s Instagram post announcing her eleventh-hour rush to Sydney caused group chats across the Emerald City to explode just in time for the midnight fireworks display.

The rumour on everybody’s lips: had Sam reunited with her old flame, the playboy publican and former Bachelorette star Stu Laundy?

The caption certainly hinted at it, but when I put in a call to Stu he was quick to clarify he and Sam were just good friends.

Sam’s friends joke that Stu is her ‘fallback guy’ whenever she is having boyfriend trouble

‘She’s a mate but dating-wise, she’s outside the age bracket,’ the hospitality maestro said, referencing his penchant for dating younger women.

And as for why Sam, who is in her early 40s, would share such an eyebrow-raising post announcing where, and with whom, she had spent her New Year’s Eve?

Well, we hear the glamorous reporter had just had a minor falling-out with a boyfriend and wanted to send a clear message.

Stu wouldn’t be drawn on the specifics of Sam’s private life, but he did say with a laugh: ‘Look, I’m happy to be the knight in shining armour for any girl who wants to escape to Sydney for some consolation.’ 

Friends of the TV host are known to joke that Stu is her ‘fallback guy’ whenever she is having boyfriend trouble.

And it’s not the first time the gallant pub baron has swung into action to provide a shoulder for Sam to cry on.

The single mum of two boys previously revealed how Laundy stepped in after an ex-boyfriend dumped her on the day her ex-husband was remarrying.

‘I really liked this guy and I could see a future with him, but he broke up with me with a text. It was really awful and it was Stu that was like, “Oh crap, we better keep you busy for the weekend or you’ll cry,”‘ she said at the time. 

After the post, Stu was quick to clarify he and Sam were just good friends

Sam was a guest at Stu’s 50th birthday party at Arturo’s Rooftop in Woolloomooloo in 2022

Birthday boy Stu is pictured at his party with a glamorous guest

The then-Nine News regional presenter said the guy in question came back a week later and apologised, and the pair tried to make it work one last time, but to no avail.

Sam, a native of Toowoomba, married at 27 before going through a divorce she has described as ‘horrific’.

After her marriage breakdown, she was linked to The Bachelorette star Sasha Mielczarek following his split from Sam Frost, who’d chosen him as her winning suitor.

But sadly their first date in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley hit a stumbling block when Sasha turned out to be a little shorter than Sam had expected.

• Read Lucy Manly’s society column The Group Chat every Friday, exclusively for Mail+ subscribers