Sam Armytage said farewell to Sunrise with champagne and an intimate lunch with her colleagues, however, many couldn’t help but notice that missing from her ultimate send off was former co-host David Koch and her replacement co-cost Natalie Barr.
WATCH BELOW: Samantha Armytage and Natalie Barr walk off set after Kochie joke
In a bid to close her official chapter as a morning host, Sam held a farewell lunch at Catalina – a restaurant in Sydney’s Rose Bay.
Among the presenter’s luncheon guests were her husband Richard Lavender, Sunrise executive producer Michael Pell and Morning Show host Kylie Gillies, the latter of whom has revealed the real reason why Kochie and Nat weren’t invited.
Speaking on The Kyle and Jackie O Show, Kylie said that Sam hadn’t actually planned a send-off, but when she asked her what she was doing that afternoon, the Seven team decided to do something at the very last minute.
“I was there… I said to Sam, ‘What are you doing after work? You can’t go home and do the washing. Let’s go out and have [lunch]. Let’s have a champagne; you can’t go home’,” she explained.
When asked by radio host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson, whether Kylie was the one “responsible for this impromptu little get-together”, Kylie agreed, squashing any reports of the Sunrise team being snubbed by Sam.
She also said that the on-air Sunrise team didn’t go because they had already spent hours toasting with Sam at Seven‘s Martin Place studios.
“While we were on air [on The Morning Show], they all had some champagne in the office with Sam,” Kylie said.
The reports were sparked when Kochie and Nat appeared on The Kyle and Jackie O Show following the farewell soirée, where they were grilled as to why they didn’t attend.
“Well, we didn’t know about it… we had a postponed Christmas party the next day,” Kochie said bluntly.
Natalie also chimed in and said: “And we had been having champagne in the office for a while.”
Natalie and Kochie weren’t the only Sunrise stars absent from Sam’s send-off, as newsreader Edwina Bartholomew and weatherman Sam Mac also didn’t attend.
Sam and Kochie have publicly bumped heads on numerous occasions, where just last year the pair engaged in an on-air tiff regarding COVID-19.
Earlier this month, Sam confirmed she was leaving the Channel Seven show live on-air, saying that the “time has come for the sun to set on my time at Sunrise“.
With Sam gone, long-time newsreader Natalie Barr has taken the reigns.
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