Sunrise host David ‘Kochie’ Koch has revealed that he and Natalie Barr were not invited to former co-host Samantha Armytage’s lavish farewell party, which was held shortly after her shock departure from the show.
Kochie and Nat appeared on KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O Show on Thursday when they were grilled for details about Sam’s exit.
Kochie said in a round about way that the pair were never invited to Sam’s swanky farewell bash, that was held at Sydney’s Catalina restaurant in Rose Bay and was attended by the likes of The Morning Show’s Kylie Gillies.
Spilling the beans: David ‘Kochie’ Koch revealed on the Kyle and Jackie O Show on Thursday that he and Natalie Barr WEREN’T INVITED to Samantha Armytage’s lavish farewell party after she quit Sunrise – but denied the blonde was pushed out of the top job
‘Why didn’t you two go to Sam’s farewell party?’ Shock jock Kyle Sandilands asked.
He added: ‘All the photographers where there, but I didn’t see you there?’
Kochie then let slip that they weren’t actually invited.
‘We didn’t know about it and we had a postponed Christmas party the next day,’ he said, adding that they’re strict about events because they’ve ‘got to get up early.’
Nat added: ‘And we had been having champagne in the office for a while.’
The pair also denied claims that Samantha was forced to leave the top-rating breakfast TV show.
Kyle quizzed the pair about what really happened with Sam and why she left.
‘So what is it like over there, what really happened with Sam, did you [want] her out or what happened there? You must of thought, “okay, you’ve had enough,” Kyle said.
Kochie answered, saying that ‘Sam just wanted a change of life.’
‘No, no, Sam just wanted a change of life, she got married,’ Kochie said.
He added that for months, they knew that she was ‘thinking’ about leaving Sunrise for a new life, having just married millionaire Richard Lavender.
Missing from Sam’s farewell were the likes of Sunrise’s Kochie and Nat, as well as former co-stars Edwina Bartholomew and Sam ‘Mac’ McMillan.
The leaving lunch came a few hours after Samantha used her final episode to launch an attack on the media for perceived unfair treatment during her TV career.
‘I do want to say that I never fully understood some of the scrutiny and the snarkiness and the bullying from some aspects of the media,’ she said during her farewell address on Sunrise on Thursday March 11.
‘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.’
Among those at the exclusive luncheon was Samantha’s husband of almost three months, Richard Lavender, who she arrived with hand-in-hand.
The Morning Show’s Kylie Gillies was also in attendance, along with Sunrise’s executive producer, Michael Pell.
But there were a few notable absences too, although they may have met up with the group later on.
Sam’s last day on Sunrise was on Thursday, March 11, but she had announced she as leaving Sunrise days earlier, on Monday, March 8.
When she first announced she was leaving the show, she said: ‘I want to step out of this public world for a while and take some time and calm things down, enjoy a bit of slow living, and spend some time with my precious family, my husband and [dog] Banjo.’
Things took a serious turn at the end of Thursday’s broadcast meanwhile, when after a series of gushing tributes from colleagues and celebrities, Sam broke down in tears as she accused ‘some aspects of the media’ of treating her unfairly during her eight-year tenure.
Sam, who joined Sunrise in 2013, spoke about the toxic environment of the TV industry in an article for the News Corp-owned Stellar magazine last month.
‘There’s a lot about television that’s all about you and that’s an awful way to live your life. TV isn’t a place that’s necessarily very healthy,’ she said.
‘It’s full of sociopaths and narcissists. It can be a dangerous environment, let me tell you.’
She also said unmarried, childless women in television were treated differently and given more work compared to their married counterparts.
Her inflammatory remarks greatly upset her colleagues and executives at Seven, and were described by some insiders as tantamount to ‘career suicide’.