“Stay Away From Her!” Ricki-Lee Coulter’s SHOCKING Message to Sam Armytage Amid the Renewed Morning TV Bloodbath!
Natalie Barr has found herself caught in an awkward moment after accidentally revealing longtime morning TV rival, Samantha Armytage, had made a cameo in her phone’s camera roll.
The Sunrise presenter was posting an Instagram Story showcasing a baby blue cardigan last Friday when her followers caught a glimpse of the images saved on her phone. One of them appeared to show her former Sunrise co-star, Sam Armytage, sitting at the Today desk, just days after she returned to breakfast television on Channel Nine.
Given the faux pas, the image did not stay online for long. Nat removed the original Story and later uploaded another version, this time with the revealing section of her photo library no longer visible.
Sam joined Michael Willesee Jr. on Today last Monday and has been tipped as a possible replacement for Sarah Abo during her maternity leave. Channel Nine is set to overhaul Today following Karl Stefanovic’s departure in June.
The timing made Nat’s mishap particularly notable, with Nat and Sam now competing in the same fiercely contested breakfast TV space.
So does this mean that their rumoured feud is back on? On Friday morning’s episode of Ricki-Lee & Tim on Nova FM, Australian Idol’s Ricki-Lee Coulter has defended Nat, telling listeners that random screenshots don’t necessarily have a larger meaning.
Ricki-Lee Coulter comes to Natalie Barr’s defence
Ricki-Lee spoke about Nat’s mistake on her Nova radio show. “It showed what was in her camera roll, and if you zoom in on the camera roll you can see that it’s a picture, like a screenshot of a news article that has Sam Armytage sitting at the Today Show desk,” the singer said.
The ARIA nominee went on to defend Nat over the screenshot. “She deleted it and she popped up a new one, and I’m just gonna say this: This happens all the time,” she said.
“I screenshot things constantly whether I like someone’s hair or their makeup… it can be as innocent as that. Then the nasty online [response], they kind of make it a mean thing and it’s not. It happens to all of us.”
Ricki-Lee went on to joke that’s she’s a ‘screenshot queen’ too, revealing she has over 19,000 screenshots on her own phone.
Natalie Barr and Samantha Armytage’s morning TV rivalry
The two women have plenty of history together. Nat and Sam spent almost eight years together on Sunrise before Sam left the Channel Seven morning program in 2021, with Nat subsequently stepping into the co-hosting role alongside David Koch.
Soon afterwards, Nat admitted their relationship largely was just a working one. “We got along very well in the office, for sure,” she told The Australian Women’s Weekly, adding they “didn’t really see each other outside the office” because they led “vastly different lives”.
Sam later made some curious comments directed at Nat, suggesting she had been gunning for her job at Sunrise. Following a Kyle and Jackie O interview about the supposed feud, Sam retweeted a clip on Twitter and wrote: “Nat’s wanted the job, forever… and she’s finally got it.”
Sam added that Nat should “get on and enjoy it” and “forget about me”, before joking that she was “unforgettable”.
In more recent years, both women have played down suggestions of bad blood between them.