Photography: Kellie Blizard.
For almost 50 years, veteran journalist Barry Soper has had a front-row seat in Parliament – holding ministers to account, covering campaigns and elections, power struggles and prime ministers. He’s travelled the world and gained extraordinary access to our most powerful people. It’s been a career that’s demanding, fast-paced and memorable. But ask Barry what really matters and his answer is simple: family.
A father of seven – Kate, 44, Hannah, 41, Alice, 37, Henry, 32, Hugh, 29, Iggy, four, and Mackay, 15 months – the 74-year-old says parenting has been both his most important role and his most challenging. And while he never expected he’d be raising toddlers in his seventies, alongside his broadcaster wife Heather du Plessis-Allan, this surprise twist has given him a fresh perspective and endless joy.
“Being a parent is the hardest job in the world, but it’s also the most wonderful,” says Barry, who is also a grandfather of four.
“My family is not just the greatest pride, but the love of my life. I am very close to all of my children.”
A memoir decades in the making
Today, the broadcaster is talking to the Weekly about his new memoir, One Last Question, Prime Minister. The book is a rollicking account of his working life, measured by the 12 prime ministers he has covered since entering the Press Gallery. He began as a young political editor for private radio stations in 1980. The book is both revealing and entertaining – filled with hilarious and at times eye-watering tales.
Barry was approached about writing a book years ago. However, he put it off as he simply didn’t have the time. Yet it was a serious health crisis in 2023 that saw him finally put pen to paper.
“I thought, well, I could take it to my grave or put it in print, so I decided on the latter.”
Working with interviewers, Barry would share his stories while he was walking every morning with his baby daughter Mackay. But he admits an overzealous office clean-up by a staff member several years ago left him without the daily radio opinion pieces he’d carefully tucked away for the very purpose of writing a book.
“Every single column had been thrown out!” he says, still smarting. 2
The moment his archives were lost
“And what he said to me was, ‘Oh, I thought it was so old that nobody would be interested.’ Angry isn’t the word – I was furious.”
Instead, Barry relied on his memory and archives as he revealed the close relationships – and the run-ins – he shared with many of those in power. He counts Helen Clark and Sir John Key as the two most effective prime ministers during his time, and Dame Jacinda Ardern – with whom he frequently clashed over her media handling – the weakest. The highlight of his career, he says, was his interactions with Nelson Mandela and the scoops he’s most proud of are ones relating to Fijian coups.
“I became known in Fiji as a coup-ologist,” he laughs.
The unexpected side of political reporting
And then there are the many bizarre experiences that still make him laugh. His colourful career includes discovering David Lange had snuck off to Disneyland during an official US trip, meeting Yoko Ono, who praised New Zealand’s nuclear-free stance, and interviewing Bishop Desmond Tutu after finding his number in a South African phone book.
Southland-raised Barry says when he took his first job in the Press Gallery, he thought it might be a role he’d hold for a few years. But, as he says – “politics got into my blood” – and has given him a career he’ll be forever grateful for. He went on to work across radio and television, becoming New Zealand’s longest serving political editor.
“I love politics for the personalities, not necessarily the policies. I love looking at how a government survives and what happens when a government’s in power. I enjoy the whole process and have made some very, very good friends in my time on both sides of the House.”
Inside the relationships behind the headlines
In 2023, he stepped away and was honoured at a black-tie dinner in the Grand Hall in Parliament. Now, he lives in Auckland with Newstalk ZB Drive host Heather and their little ones, balancing family life with his part-time role as senior political commentator for Newstalk ZB. Listeners can hear the husband-and-wife duo each afternoon, where they discuss political issues of the day.
Marrying fellow journalist Heather 16 years ago, and welcoming Iggy and Mackay into the world, has given him a wonderful new chapter, and he admits that fatherhood this time around has been a different experience.
He loves being a hands-on dad to Iggy and Mackay.
The reality of becoming a parent again
“When you’re young, you’re absolutely unprepared for what parenthood is all about,” he reflects.
“It’s probably the hardest job that you’ll do in the world. You’ve got to be selfless. You’ve got to put yourself in second place, and always put their wants and needs first. Doing it again at this stage has given me a new lease on life.”
He and Heather share the parenting load evenly, he says. While Iggy is a mummy’s boy, Mackay is most certainly a daddy’s girl – Barry has been the one to get up in the night to her since she arrived and counts himself as her primary caregiver. It’s a role he treasures.
Barry’s favourite time of day is the morning, when he gets Mackay out of her cot, changes her nappy, and takes her into bed where Heather and Iggy are waiting.
“Usually I’ll deliver her in a ceremonial kind of way,” he shares.
Inside the family’s morning routine
“I’ll hold her up in the air, and fly her in like an aeroplane and she’ll be laughing away. Then I’ll pop her in with her mum and brother, and go off to make everyone’s breakfast. We’re a bit boring, we always have the same – avocado and tomato on Vogel’s toast.”
The family then takes Iggy to kindy, before Barry continues on for his daily 6km walk, while Heather goes home to prepare for her afternoon radio show. A nanny takes over in the afternoon when Barry
heads into work, before he is home in time for the dinner and bathtime shift.
His union with Heather might have raised eyebrows in the beginning for its 30-year age gap, but Barry says he always knew it was a relationship that would last.
A partnership built on understanding
“I’m sure there were many of my darling friends at the wedding, saying, ‘Oh, dear, Barry’s setting himself up here.’ Well, the thing is, I knew Heather better than any of them did.”
Although people raised the age gap at the start, the couple no longer gives it a moment’s thought after almost 20 years together.
“Heather said to me early on, ‘Barry, I’m not marrying a birth certificate.’ And I think that’s a good way to look at life – age doesn’t have to diminish you. Hopefully, you’re the same person as you’ve ever been, regardless of age.”
Barry is proud of his relationships with his older children, too, and says they all enjoy robust political debates when they all come together. His daughter Alice is a former Wellington representative rugby player turned journalist and TV presenter. She has a profile of her own. Barry laughs that she is even more left wing than he was as a young man. He loves that his offspring bring different perspectives to the table.
Proud of children with their own voices
“Alice rang me once about a column she was writing, and she said, ‘Dad, I think I should run this past you.’ And I said, ‘Alice, don’t bother. We live in a democracy. You’re entitled to have any view you like.’ And, of course, all my grown-up kids have varying views that cover the spectrum. And that’s what I like. They’re all great human beings.”
His children might be scattered around New Zealand and the globe, but he sees them as much as he can, keeps in touch often and they share family rituals. Every Christmas Day, they phone each other and sing Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.
A family tradition no matter the distance
“I don’t know how it started, but it’s become a tradition we would never miss, no matter where we all are in the world.”
It’s almost three years since Barry’s health battle. He underwent emergency open heart surgery at the time. Post-operative complications left him hospitalised for three months. He was unable to eat for months and was fed via a tube. During this time, his muscles deteriorated to the point where he couldn’t walk. It was a hard pill to swallow for the former runner.
“I would look out my window at people walking around outside and think, ‘Aren’t you lucky.’”
They were some of the most difficult months of his life. But Barry insists he never lost hope.
“I am an optimist and I just knew very strongly that I would make it through. I knew I wouldn’t die.”
His big goal now? To be around long enough to see Iggy and Mackay reach adulthood.
“You can’t go on forever, but what I’d really like is to stick around long enough to see my little kids growing and know where they’re heading in life. That’s all.”
One Last Question, Prime Minister by Barry Soper (HarperCollins New Zealand, rrp $39.99)
