After six months maternity leave, Edwina Bartholomew returns to Sunrise: “I think it’s time”
"It will be nice to speak to other humans."
A few days before Christmas last year, Sunrise star Edwina Bartholomew welcomed her first child with husband Neil Varcoe, an adorable baby girl named, Molly Matilda Christie Varcoe.
Over the past six months, the 36-year-old newsreader has been keeping us updated via social media on her new role as a mum and sharing impossibly cute pictures of baby Molly.
Edwina has been honest about her motherhood journey and early on admitted that those first weeks with a newborn was tougher than she thought it would be.
Now, six months on since Molly’s arrival, which has seen her parenting through a pandemic, Edwina’s ready to return to breakfast television.
“I think the combination of being in isolation, plus maternity leave,” Edwina tells News Corp Australia. “I think it’s time, actually. It will be nice to speak to other humans.
“It’s been lovely to watch the show as a viewer and get a sense of why we’re so popular with breastfeeding mums, becaue you really are a captive audience, in some respects.”
In a post to Instagram over the weekend, Edwina reflected on how fast her maternity leave flew by but is appreciative of the silver linings which COVID-19 brought which also saw her husband out of work and spending quality time at home.
“It certainly has. But we have also been so lucky. Thanks to a global pandemic and a timely and stressful Covid redundancy for @neilwrites, we have had every single waking (and non-waking hour) together for nearly six months. That is such a rare thing,” she writes.
“So, I guess, thanks Covid. You have given us a cupboard full of hand sanitiser, a new found perspective and the most precious thing of all, time. See you from 5am.”
Eddy’s post was met with support from many of her mum friends who are also in the media business.
Mum-of-two Aislin Kriukelis from The Today Show wrote: All the best @edwina_b! 😘 Cuddles after work are the best. 🤗xx
The Project‘s Lisa Wilkinson wished her well, writing: “Have a great first morning back Eddy. Molly is just heaven.”
The Morning Show co-host and Channel Seven colleague, Kylie Gillies added: “How do you want your coffee? 💕💕 welcome back💕”
Edwina definitely has a lot of friends in the business and is thankful to many of the mums who reached out to her during her maternity leave with parenting advice and words of support.
“Rebecca Maddern [Weekend Today host on Nine] has been a huge, huge help from day dot,” she says. “She just provided so much useful information – from the kinds of swaddles to buy, to referring me to her midwife as well.”
Eddy says social media has been a blessing for connecting with others.
“Social media can be such a superficial medium, but in a strange way, it’s helped me connect with all sorts of people. You know, Carrie Bickmore [The Project] and Sarah Harris [Studio 10] and all these lovely people who can reach out and say ‘hello’ and ‘how you going?’ It’s been a beautiful thing, I think.”
“It also keeps you connected with the world when you’re sitting at home on the couch and wondering if you’re doing things right or wrong, or know what you’re doing at all,” she says.
