Nat Barr opens up about her secret behind the scenes struggle

Sunrise host Natalie Barr has confessed she misses her sons ‘so much’ after she and her husband became empty nesters this year.

The Channel Seven presenter, 56, shares two sons with her husband Andrew Thompson; Hunter 18, and Andrew, 22.

Barr said she would drive down to Canberra to visit her youngest son on Mother’s Day after he moved to the nation’s capital for university.

‘I’m going to Canberra (for the day) – just spending time with your kids (is gift enough),’ she told Sunrise on Friday morning.

‘I miss them so much. I’m going to see my little boy.

‘I’m also going to Coffee Club with a bunch of other mums, which is fantastic.’

Barr spoke candidly about how she and her husband had become empty nesters after Hunter moved out to go to university earlier this year.

Sunrise host Natalie Barr (pictured) has confessed she misses her sons ‘so much’ after she and her husband became empty nesters this year

The Channel Seven presenter, 56, shares two sons with her husband Andrew Thompson; Hunter 18, and Andrew, 22 (the family are pictured on holiday)

‘I’m not feeling the new chapter yet,’ she told Stellar Magazine in March.

‘The first one left several years ago and he’s at uni in Melbourne and the second one left a few weeks ago, He went to uni in Canberra.

‘We packed up the car, drove him down, said goodbye and drove back bawling our eyes out. I think we were mourning the period of our lives that is now gone forever because it’s their childhood (that’s over).

‘You say all the right things: You have all this freedom, you can do what you want, it’s a new beginning for you’. But I don’t feel that yet. I honestly just feel sad.

‘That’s the honest truth.’

In February, Barr wrote that that her house had become quiet after years of ‘noise and sweat and boy smell’ in a piece on motherhood for 7News.

Barr said she missed her two sons ‘so much’ after they moved out of the family home to study

‘Our 18-year-old, our youngest, is packing to move away to university, and I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. Did I do enough and be enough for them because ‘Phase 1′ is over, and we will never get it back?’ she wrote in

‘I have loved it with every bone in my body. But now what?

‘And then I’m reminded about another saying from the parents who’ve been here before … ‘Your children are only on loan to you’.

‘Hopefully, our best is enough, they are ready for ‘Phase 2’, and we can hang on for the next part of the ride.’

Natalie joined Seven’s breakfast show as a newsreader in 2003, and was promoted to co-anchor in 2021 after the departure of Sam Armytage.

Her husband Andrew is an Oscar-nominated film and TV editor best known for his short film The Eleven O’Clock. The couple married in 1995.

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