Natalie Barr describes her first day as Sunrise host as ‘nightmarish’

She’s the long-standing newsreader who recently took over from Samantha Armytage as the new host of Sunrise.

And on Tuesday, Natalie Barr candidly described her first day hosting the show as ‘a bit nightmarish’ during an interview with TV Blackbox.

The 52-year-old explained that she wasn’t a fan of the spotlight being entirely on her following Sam’s tearful exit, and that she can’t wait to get back to the ‘new normal’ of simply hosting the top-rating breakfast show.

‘That’s my natural habitat,’ the mother of two said. ‘I love covering the news, I love going out to these stories. But the attention on me is not my natural habitat.

‘Yesterday, the first day, was probably a bit nightmarish for me because everyone kept asking, “How are you? How are you going? What’s it like?”

‘I just wanted to go back to the new normal, where we’ll actually be covering the news, and the events and the great interviews that we do – not me!’

Natalie also revealed revealed how she received the life-changing news that she would helm the show alongside David ‘Kochie’ Koch after Sam’s departure.

‘When the big boss called and asked, it was still nerve-wracking and I did have to think, this is a lot more attention, a lot more pressure,’ she said.

‘I got a phone call from a big boss at Seven, and he said “how about it?”

‘I said well… uh! OK! I wasn’t very eloquent, and it wasn’t my finest moment I guess!’

Sam, who joined Sunrise in 2013, tearfully announced her resignation last week.

‘The time has come for the sun to set on my time at Sunrise. I have always been brave and fearless in my career and this decision is no different,’ she said.

She explained she was leaving of her own choosing, and was looking forward to life away from the spotlight after a ‘bittersweet’ year that included the death of her mother, Libby, and her marriage to businessman Richard Lavender.

‘As many of you know, the last six months of my personal life have been very bittersweet. Some bits have been very happy, and some bits have been very, very sad,’ she said during the show.

‘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.’