Samantha Armytage’s long-running feud with Natalie Barr came to a head on Monday when the former Sunrise host slammed her ex-colleague in a scathing tweet.
Sam well and truly confirmed the pair were not friends when she criticised Nat, 53, for continuing to speak about her in the media, three months after taking over as host of Seven’s breakfast show.
‘Look… I’m out. Nat’s wanted the job, forever… & she’s finally got it,’ Sam, 44, wrote.
Bad blood: Samantha Armytage’s (right) long-running feud with Natalie Barr (left) came to a head on Monday, when the former Sunrise host shared a telling tweet
She added: ‘She just needs to get on & enjoy it – & forget about me… (even though I’m unforgettable.) #peaceout’.
Her comments came just hours after Sam brushed off a question about their rumoured rift during an interview on The Kyle & Jackie O Show that morning.
Instead of addressing their frosty relationship directly, Sam paraphrased Oscar Wilde’s famous quote: ‘There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.’
Hits back: ‘Look… I’m out. Nat’s wanted the job, forever… & she’s finally got it,’ Sam, 44, wrote about her former Sunrise colleague, who replaced her as host in March
After a pause, Sam dodged the question by saying: ‘Yeah, well, look, I mean it’s better to be talked about than not, isn’t it in life?’
The former Sunrise host then took a subtle swipe at Nat for bringing her up in a recent interview in The Australian Women’s Weekly after she’d decided to take a step back from the TV industry.
She said: ‘I thought everyone might forget about me when I was having my little sabbatical, but it seems they’re not, you know?’
‘She just needs to get on & enjoy it – & forget about me… (even though I’m unforgettable.) #peaceout,’ Sam said of Nat on Twitter
‘Look, there’s nothing interesting going on there, honestly. I’m just doing my thing, out in the country,’ she added.
Rumours of a feud between the pair first escalated in March, after it was revealed that Nat hadn’t been told about Sam’s star-studded farewell lunch at Catalina Restaurant in Sydney’s Rose Bay.
Appearing on The Kyle & Jackie O Show at the time, Sunrise host David Koch admitted he and Nat were not invited to the fancy event.
Not invited: Rumours of a feud escalated in March, after it was revealed that Nat hadn’t been told about Sam’s star-studded farewell lunch at Catalina Restaurant in Sydney’s Rose Bay. Pictured with Kylie Gillies (far left)
‘We didn’t know about it,’ the 65-year-old said, noting that the Sunrise team is strict about events because of their early start.
Added Nat: ‘And we had been having Champagne in the office for a while.’
Earlier that month, before Sam sensationally quit Sunrise, Nat didn’t take too kindly to controversial claims Sam made that married women with children aren’t expected to work as hard in their careers.
Cutting comments: In March, Nat clapped back at Sam’s claims that married women with children aren’t expected to work as hard in their careers
No love lost: Hints of a feud between the two women first became public in July 2019, when Nat jokingly called Sam ‘a b***h-faced moll’
Sam sensationally wrote in her column for Stellar magazine that ‘bosses don’t ask as much of you if you’re a wife or mother’.
‘I’ve never shied away from hard work, but there was an expectation that Sam would do it because she’s got nothing else going on,’ she wrote.
‘[Sometimes I’d think], “Well, actually, I’d get something else going on if you didn’t make me do this”.’
Nat later clapped back saying that while ‘everyone is entitled to their opinion’, she’s always worked just as hard as her unmarried and/or childless female colleagues.
‘I don’t feel like I’ve worked less being a wife and mum. I don’t feel like I’ve had to prove anything either, that’s how it’s always worked for me,’ the mum of two teenage sons with husband Andrew Thompson told The Courier Mail.
‘I don’t feel like I’ve worked less being a wife and mum. I don’t feel like I’ve had to prove anything either, that’s how it’s always worked for me,’ Nat told The Courier Mail .
‘I feel like I’ve worked really hard and I’ve put my hand up for every job, every news story that involved going away,’ she added.
‘I’ve been to floods and fires and terror attacks and US elections and I love taking on all that extra load, it’s why I became a journalist. I put my hand up as high as I can to get to those jobs and do the extra stuff.’
Nat insisted that her workload would be the same, even if she was unmarried or without children.
Courting controversy: Earlier in March, Sam sensationally wrote in her column for Stellar magazine that ‘bosses don’t ask as much of you if you’re a wife or mother’
Silent treatment: In April, Sam revealed she hadn’t spoken to any of her former colleagues since leaving Sunrise a month earlier
In April, Sam revealed she hadn’t spoken to any of her former colleagues since leaving Sunrise a month earlier.
‘It’s only been a few weeks so I’ve had a quiet time and haven’t spoken to anyone,’ she told The Daily Telegraph.
Eyebrows were raised yet again in May when it emerged Sam didn’t follow Nat or Kochie on Instagram, despite following many other Seven colleagues.
Sam downplayed the snub on her News Corp podcast earlier this month, saying: ‘I don’t think I unfo… I don’t think anyone’s following anyone in there.’
Nat finally confirmed last week that she didn’t have a close relationship with Sam, who she replaced as Sunrise anchor on March 15.
Keeping it professional: Nat revealed for the first time last week that she didn’t have a close relationship with Sam, who she replaced as Sunrise anchor on March 15. Pictured with Sunrise colleagues Mark Beretta (second left) and David Koch (far right)
When asked about rumours the two women did not get along, Nat told The Australian Women’s Weekly they weren’t friends outside of the workplace.
She said that while the pair ‘got along well in the office’, they rarely spoke after the cameras stopped rolling because they didn’t have much in common.
‘The truth is we didn’t really see each other outside the office. We had vastly different lives, I guess,’ Natalie said.
‘We were in different places. She was hanging with her friends and I was spending time with my family. So, yes, were were in different places.’
Separate lives: When asked about rumours the two women did not get along, Nat told The Australian Women’s Weekly they weren’t friends outside of the workplace
‘We didn’t know about it,’ David Koch said of Sam’s farewell lunch, noting that the Sunrise team is strict about events because of their early start
Hints of a feud between the two women could even be traced back to July 2019, when Nat jokingly called Sam ‘a b***h-faced moll’.
Sam and Nat were answering fans’ questions during a segment on Sunrise when one viewer asked: ‘Are you all really as nice as you appear to be on Sunrise?’
‘Nah, she’s a b***h-faced moll,’ Nat responded facetiously, before she and Sam both burst out laughing.
She added: ‘No, she’s not, I just love that term.’
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Monday, TV Blackbox’s Rob McKnight admitted ‘there is fascination about what went on behind the scenes of Sunrise’.
‘Nat is a straight shooter and tells it like it is. She was asked about her friendship with Sam and she told the truth,’ said the former TV producer.
‘Is anyone actually surprised the two didn’t mingle outside of work? No, of course not – they are different people with different lives.
Curiosity: Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Monday, TV Blackbox’s Rob McKnight admitted ‘there is fascination about what went on behind the scenes of Sunrise’
‘Sam is probably right that Nat has always had her eye on the job but that doesn’t mean she was actively chasing it.
‘In the media everyone wants the biggest job and the highest profile. If you don’t have an ego and ambition you just won’t make it in this industry.’
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Channel Seven for comment.
‘In the media everyone wants the biggest job and the highest profile. If you don’t have an ego and ambition you just won’t make it in this industry,’ former TV producer Rob McKnight told Daily Mail Australia