Politics

Barnaby Joyce defends $150K paid interview

May 29, 2018

Barnaby Joyce has defended his paid interview with Sunday Night. Source: Getty

Barnaby Joyce has defended his whopping $150,000 pay day for a tell-all interview with Channel Seven’s Sunday Night, saying he “tried for privacy” but it didn’t work.

Joyce and his partner Vikki Campion are set to appear in their first televised interview as a couple on Sunday and will discuss their newborn son, Sebastian and the details of their highly publicised relationship.

News of the paid interview has been met with mixed reactions from Joyce’s Canberra colleagues, with many condemning his choice to accept cash for his story after previously begging for privacy and respect. However, on Monday, the former deputy prime minister said he had decided to take the paid route after his efforts to keep his relationship under wraps were thwarted by the paparazzi.

“We tried for privacy,” he reportedly told 7 News Sydney on Monday. “In the last fortnight we’ve had drones over our house. We’ve had paparazzi waiting for us….We tried just burning this out and that didn’t work.”

#BREAKING Barnaby Joyce breaks his silence on a paid interview with @sundaynighton7 "We tried for privacy. In the last fortnight we've had drones over our house. We've had paparazzi waiting for us….We tried just just burning this out & that didn't work." @7NewsSydney

— Taylor Aiken (@tayloraiken_) May 28, 2018

According to Sunday Night, the interview shows Campion as she “speaks candidly and emotionally about her experience” since striking up her relationship with Joyce, and also features the couple’s son in his first official on-air unveiling.

Joyce has maintained that his personal life should be kept private since The Daily Telegraph first broke news of his affair with Campion, his former media advisor, in February. At the time it was revealed Campion was already five months pregnant with Joyce’s child, despite the Tamworth politician only announcing his separation from his wife of 20 years, Natalie, three months earlier.

While neither Joyce nor Campion had confirmed their relationship at the time, Natalie lashed out at their affair in an angry statement to the media in which she said she and her four daughters were “devastated” and “hurt” by Joyce’s actions. She added that she was particularly hurt after inviting Campion into her home and her life throughout the months she was employed by her husband, only to have the media adviser strike up the relationship behind her back.

The press has kept a close eye on the new couple ever since, much to their ire. The ongoing media attention has reportedly led Campion to lodge an official complaint to the Australian Press Council for an alleged breach of privacy by The Daily Telegraph during her pregnancy. The news outlet plans to defend the complaint.