Both of them are blonde and beautiful. They have shared the same job, the company of the same guy and they work in the cut-throat world of TV. So surely they are rivals? There simply must be a strong competitive edge to the friendship between Breakfast host Pippa Wetzell and her fill-in, the TV one show’s part-time newsreader Alison Mau. Perhaps even some serious bitchiness and backstabbing behind the scenes?
“Yes, I absolutely can’t stand her,” agrees Pippa. “Cue the hair-pulling,” Ali adds. They’re kidding, of course. In fact, the close bond the pair share is what helps them survive the challenges of being mums-of-two whose working days start at the ridiculously early hour of 4.30am.
What many Breakfast viewers might not realise is that the two women’s friendship goes back a decade, to when Ali was the show’s full-time host and Pippa the young woman who brought the coffee and put microphones on the guests.
“Right from then, I thought she was fantastic,” says Pippa (33). “She was always so lovely to work with. So when she came back to fill in on the show, it was nice because it had been just boys and it was good to have another girl in the mix.”
Ali (45) can remember picking out Pippa as a future talent early on. “She has always stood out in the newsroom and I think TVNZ wanted her for the Breakfast role for quite a long time. She just had to go through a maturing process first. Back then, she was in her mid-twenties and it can be hard to make a long-term go of a programme like Breakfast without a certain amount of life experience.”
When Ali returned to TVNZ after her period at Prime, you could have forgiven Pippa for feeling just a little insecure. After all, Ali had so much more experience on the show. “But,” explains Pippa, “it was actually a huge weight off my shoulders because I was keen to have another baby at that point and it was great knowing that I could leave the job in her hands.”
Now the two friends are taking on a new challenge – a stint as co-hosts on Breakfast while Paul Henry is on holiday. And, says Pippa, if there really was any secret enmity between them, the cracks would certainly show over the course of the 25 hours of live TV the pair will be presenting together over the next fortnight.
“The reality is when you’re on-screen for that amount of time, you can’t lie or pretend to be someone you’re not,” she explains. “So I’m quite looking forward to people having the opportunity to see us together, and to realise we are friends and we do get on. We won’t be putting it on for the cameras because you can’t. People see through it immediately. I couldn’t sit there and pretend I liked Ali if I didn’t.”
It’s pretty much unheard of in this country to have two female anchors on a current affairs show, but Ali reckons the viewers will quickly get used to it. “I just hope we don’t giggle too much,” she says. “We do have a heap of fun together.”
As the two women sip coffee side by side, there’s a lot of laughter and the sort of good-natured ribbing you only get when you’re easy in each other’s company. While their busy home lives mean they don’t see much of each other outside of work, Pippa and Ali value the friendship which has grown between them and the support they can give each other.
“The reason we’re such good friends is that we have a lot in common despite the fact there’s more than 10 years between us,” explains Ali. There are odd little coincidences – both are the middle of three girls, for example – but their main bond stems from shared experience. Both know what it’s like juggling a role on Breakfast with raising a young family.
“I really feel for Pippa because I’ve been through a lot of the same things,” says Ali. “Both of us have presented the show while pregnant, for example. And as Pippa got bigger, I remembered that feeling of waddling in to sit down on the Breakfast couch every morning.”
When a pregnant Pippa was crawling out of bed in the small hours and feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of the day ahead, it was Ali she thought of.
“There were times when I’d be sitting there, thinking, ‘This is the end of the world. How can anyone possibly do this?'” she admits. “And then I’d remember that Ali has done it too.”
Their family lives aren’t exactly the same – Pippa’s two babies, Brodie (3) and Cameron (10 months), are at a very different stage in their childhoods than Ali’s children, Paris (12) and Joel (8). “I’m having a little campaign to frighten Pippa,” jokes Ali. “She thinks she’s got it hard with a baby and a toddler, and I’m scaring her with stories of 12-year-olds!”
Both know they’re fortunate to be able to afford good childcare. Still, it’s a relief to be able to regularly let off steam with someone who can relate to the issues they’re facing. “We talk a lot about the trials of the job and having children,” says Ali, who is now a solo mum, having split from her husband, TV one newsreader Simon Dallow, last year. “Even though my two are that much older, they still moan about me not being there at the breakfast table. Mornings can be a very tender time for children.”
Both also appreciate the difficulties of having their private lives subjected to public scrutiny – including the latest headlines about Ali dating Auckland dance teacher Karleen Edmonds, which she declines to comment on – as well as the criticism a TV role attracts.
“I’m coming to terms with the criticism, although it took me a long time,” confides Pippa. “We get a lot of feedback from viewers via text and email during the show and when I first started doing the job, I used to read some of it and think, ‘This is terrible – they hate me.’ Now I realise it’s just one person’s opinion and if I met that person on the street, I might not like them either!”
Ali can relate to that exactly. “It used to wound me terribly back in the days when they talked about me and Simon as the Barbie and Ken of New Zealand TV,” she admits. “I hated all that stuff. But now I think more people like us than don’t.”
Given the strong bond between Ali and Pippa, their two weeks of fronting the show together is likely to go by in a flash. So how is Pippa’s usual Breakfast partner, Paul, going to fit in when he returns to the show? “I think what Paul might try to do is find a position between us in the middle of the couch,” Pippa says, as Ali joins in her laughter. “Can you imagine? He’d be in his element!”