Pictures: Tony Nyberg
Before becoming a mum, talented broadcaster Susie Nordqvist couldn’t have imagined she’d ever step away from full-time television journalism. She thrived in the fast-paced TV newsrooms.
But while her love of current affairs remains as strong, the juggle between work and home has become ever more complicated as her children grow, so she’s thrilled to have a flexible newsreading role at Newstalk ZB that allows her to be there for her family.
The job sees Susie covering a range of shifts on the hit radio station and she’s about to host her first-ever podcast for the NZ Herald. Some weeks, she might only work a few hours and on others, she’ll be full- time. While the unpredictable nature might not suit everyone, mum-of-two Susie, 41, says it works perfectly for her.
“I love it,” she says as she welcomes Woman’s Day into the home she shares with husband Graham Wright, plus their kids, Arlo, eight, and Indi, four, on Auckland’s North Shore.
“Sometimes I’ll only have an hour or two’s notice to get into the office, but I love that little shot of adrenaline. I’m in my happy place with the variety my work offers.”
For Susie, who formerly fronted Three’s Newshub Live At 4.30pm and TVNZ’s A Current Affair, her hours mean she’s able to remain as present as possible for her children.
With Arlo in year four at their local school and Indi starting later this year, Susie loves being there for them after school and daycare. On the day we visit, Susie proudly tells us she feels thrilled her flexible work life meant she had a front-row seat to watch Arlo win his category in the school speech finals.
“It’s things like that you don’t want to miss out on as a parent,” she says. “I love watching Arlo pick up new skills like hockey. He also plays the piano – he’ll go sit at it and tap away, rather than me having to nag him to do it. It’s pretty cool.”
Susie and Irish-born Graham, who works in marketing at AIA Insurance, are also enjoying life in the seaside village of Devonport after moving from Auckland’s Mount Eden two and a half years ago. For farm girl Susie, who was raised on a rural property near Ashburton, it’s brought a much-welcome slower pace and a tighter community feel.
“Moving over here is the closest we can get to that kind of small-town vibe that we both grew up with,” she shares.
“Graham grew up by the water in Northern Ireland and I grew up on a Mid-Canterbury farm, so we both get a bit of that living here. Sometimes I have to turn on the TV or radio just because our street is so quiet!”
Susie says watching her children grow and seeing their personalities flourish is the best part of motherhood. While Arlo is the more mellow of the two, Indi is a force to be reckoned with. They both make her laugh every day. Susie says they’ve no doubt inherited their dad’s Irish gift of the gab.
“Their personalities are very different, but it works. They get on really well,” tells Susie, who says her daughter adores her big brother. “Arlo’s happy to go with the flow. He’s a real empath. And Indi, well, she knows what she wants, put it that way! She just wants to do everything that Arlo does. She can’t wait to start school. We got her uniform the other day and she begged me to let her sleep in it!”
The last time Susie caught up with Woman’s Day was in 2021 after a series of serious health scares. At 31 weeks pregnant with Indi, doctors admitted Susie to hospital with meningitis. And two weeks after Indi’s birth, doctors diagnosed Graham with pneumonia.
The challenges didn’t end there. Baby Indi suffered from torticollis, a neck-muscle condition that was caused by the breech position she was in before her C-section birth.
While doctors hoped the neck tightness, which meant Indi couldn’t turn her head effectively, might correct itself, it wasn’t to be and last year she underwent surgery. Doctors told Susie that surgeons only perform the operation once every two to three years in New Zealand. It’s incredibly rare.
“Any parent who’s had a child have surgery will know how scary it can feel,” she says. “I sobbed as she went into theatre. It was so daunting, but kids are resilient, aren’t they? She bounced back really fast and the torticollis seems to be resolved, which is a huge relief.”
Susie says she’ll be forever grateful to the staff at Starship Hospital. They also took care of Arlo in April when he broke his arm after falling from a swing at a holiday programme.
“It was a terrible break,” she recalls. “The radiographer said, ‘This is a good one – you’ll want a picture of this’. Arlo had to have an operation and a metal rod inserted. It was a really tough and long recovery, but he has healed well.”
Having worked in TV for more than 10 years, Susie didn’t foresee a move into radio. Regardless, it’s been a welcomed change.
“I actually wanted to do radio when I left school,” she shares. “But people told me to get a grounding as a newspaper journalist first. So I did that, then TV and now here I am.”
The rewards came quickly, with Susie named a finalist for best newsreader at the NZ Radio Awards this year. “The certificate is hanging up on the fridge beside Arlo’s!” she laughs.
She admits she was devastated by the closure of Newshub earlier this year. She had been back there for about a year reading the weekend news for News First At 5.30pm alongside her casual radio shifts when it shut down. On the day of the announcement, she joined her colleagues at the studios as they processed the shock closure.
“I headed straight in after my radio shift finished,” she recalls. “I walked in the door and everywhere I looked, people were in floods of tears. It was just extraordinary. None of us imagined this would happen.”
Like most journalists in New Zealand, Susie knows the industry is facing huge challenges. She’s grateful to still work in the field she loves. She says it’s important to be open to change.
“I’m well aware we’re on borrowed time and that at some point, I’ll need to pivot again, whatever that looks like,” she muses. “But the reality is, I’ve only ever worked in journalism. It’s hard to imagine what another career would look like.
“For now, I’m just focused on how lucky I am to still work in news and be around for my kids as well. Being a mum will always come first.”
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