“Heartbreaking IVF nightmare!” : Samantha Armytage exposes secret fertility struggle
Samantha Armytage has opened up for the first time about the infertility battle she kept private during her marriage to businessman Richard Lavender.
The Golden Bachelor host and former Sunrise star shared her struggle to fall pregnant on her new podcast venture,Act Two.
The podcast launched only last month, and she’s already interviewed Rebel Wilson and Michael Clarke; this week, she turns the attention onto herself.
In an incredibly vulnerable chat to camera, the notoriously private star got real about wanting to become a mum.
“There is a unique kind of grief in letting go of that specific future. Many high-profile women are happy to talk about IVF when the journey is successful,” she said.
“But coming to terms with a failed IVF journey takes time.”
The Former Sunrise star explained that she went through a “unique kind of grief” when her IVF treatment was unsuccessful. Picture: YouTube/ActTwo
The pair were married for four years but sadly the marriage didn’t last. Picture: Sam Ruttyn
Armytage married Lavender in 2020, when she was 44 and he was 60, in a headline-making ceremony in Bowral.
The pair sadly split in 2024, but during their time together, she was privately trying to become a mum.
She also decided to step back from Sunrise, around this time, and there was a lot of speculation about why she left, when the show was a ratings smash, and she was on a rumoured $500,000 a year.
Armytage spoke about moving onto a new chapter in her emotional farewell speech on Sunrise to the viewers at home.
“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,” she said.
Samantha Armtage left Sunrise even though it was killing it in the ratings. Picture: Matrix/GC Images
People had no idea what was going on in Sam’s personal life at the time. Picture: MediaMode
In a raw moment on her podcast, the journalist explained that the heartbreak of not becoming a mum taught her life doesn’t always go as planned.
“While that chapter didn’t close the way we initially wanted, and I add, it was not the reason for that marriage to end … it opened up a different beautiful path for me,” she explained.
“I am so incredibly grateful to the family I do have. Being an aunt is one of the most important roles in my life and to my nieces and nephews and to all of my friends’ children to.”
Sam Armytage and Rebel Wilson during their interview. Picture: ActTwo with Samantha Armytage.
Although she left Sunrise, Armytage stayed in the Seven family, and only jumped ship to Nine in 2024 to host The Golden Bachelor.
She has also previously spoken on Jessica Rowe’s podcast about her decision to leave Sunrise, explaining she found the media scrutiny impossible.
“I went from being a journalist to being the subject of the news, and things would happen in my past job, and there would be five people on the set, and the only person that got blamed for it was me,” she said.
“That was a very nuclear show, Sunrise, and I was a seemingly very nuclear person at that time. “So it didn’t sit well with me because I used to think: ‘Why me?’”
Eventually, she said the unwanted and at times cruel attention, was one of the key reasons she decided to leave Sunrise.
“That was part of the reason. And I’ve had a few years now to sit quietly, sit with myself, grow up a bit, accept a few things, work out also very importantly – what I won’t tolerate,” she said.
“This wonderful thing happens as you get older as a woman, as your oestrogen begins to decrease, your tolerance for bullshit begins to decrease along with it. That’s actually a fact!”