Wendy Petrie, the golden girl of the television news hour, sits at her long kitchen table with a tall cool glass of water, and candidly admits to her foibles.
Almost three quarters of a million of us watch her every week night: poised, self-assured and articulate, as she delivers the daily news with panache. In the fickle world of television, Wendy has been a constant for the past decade, and her dedication is paying off – ratings reveal One News is now the most viewed programme of 2015. We see more of her than some of the world’s leading actors, chat-show hosts and reality stars.
But when the cameras stop rolling, what happens to Wendy Petrie – the consummate professional news anchor, who most of us would never have seen minus lipstick or with her impeccable blonde hair mussed?
Well, Wendy confesses to having the same quirks and qualms as the rest of us. Her job has brought her to the brink of tears. She wrestles with nerves and is critical of her work. She struggles with the fact her three kids are rapidly growing older, and she worries about them, like any other mum.
And no matter how rewarding her work at the forefront of the news is, she’s come to realise that her own ambition now takes a backseat to family.
As we take a seat in the 43-year-old’s Auckland home, where Lego creations take equal pride of place with contemporary artwork, Wendy’s mind is not on the newsroom but a far-removed scene.
With a fond smile, she recalls a family skiing holiday. While cautiously gliding her snowboard down the powdery slopes of Mt Ruapehu, her daughters – 11-year-old Addison, and Liv, who’s nine – zigzag down the trails with the natural grace of kids who’ve picked up the art of skiing as simply as learning to walk. Her husband, Ross Peebles, is alongside the girls, entreating their mother to pick up the pace.
As many of us would in the same situation, Wendy resolutely sticks to her own tempo. She’s always been nimble and active – she was a gymnast, dancer and cheerleader in her youth – but she knows too well the perils of snowboarding; the broken wrists and wrenched knees that are commonplace. And besides, a plaster cast probably wouldn’t look too elegant on the six o’clock news.
Wendy wears: Jumper and Skirt from Witchery, Jewellery from Zoe and Morgan.
“I’m slow, and I’m getting slower with age,” Wendy says, with a degree of acquiescence.
“I took up skiing late in life, and then snowboarding seemed the easier and cooler thing to do. Ross is always telling me to hurry and catch up to him and the girls, but I don’t want to hit my head or break an arm. I’m very cautious on the slopes. I never skied as a kid, but now we have a wonderful skiing holiday once a year. We’re really lucky to be able to do it as a family.”
This winter, the Peebles family’s snow adventure is taking a new twist, as they introduce five-year-old Zach to skis for the first time. But Wendy isn’t holding her breath that the youngest of her three children will take to it with the same gusto.
“Zach may give up after his third fall,” she says. But it’s more likely that the dynamic little boy, whose nickname is Brutus, will persevere, given his desire to be “part of the family” and keep in step with everyone else. He wants to jump in boots and all with whatever the rest of us are doing,” Wendy says. “He’s been the joy of our lives – he’s still very much ‘our little one’, and the girls adore him. He’s still in the dressing-up phase – he will enchant us all as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle one minute, and then turn into Batman the next. I really need to take some photos of him, before this phase is over.”
Understandably, Wendy could feel like time is quickly skimming by, now all three of her children are at school, and she is in her 10th year as co-host of TVNZ’s nightly 6pm bulletin with Simon Dallow. But she appears to be taking it all in her long and poised stride.
While the world of news and current affairs on New Zealand television has been in a very public state of flux in recent months, One News is going from strength to strength with its audience. Recent figures showed more than 700,000 New Zealanders tune in every evening, and the audience continues to grow.
“We’re very fortunate to be doing well in the ratings,” Wendy says. “And there’s a good feeling in the newsroom. We’ve been going through massive renovations at TVNZ for months and have now moved into new offices; they’re exciting and modern – it’s great for morale.
“It’s a big time of change at TVNZ – and as an old dinosaur I’m trying to keep up!”
Wendy has been embracing change on the home-front, too. She’s been startled by how smoothly both she and Zach have adjusted to school life since he began early this year.
“He loves it, and I admit I’ve been surprised,” she says. “It can be a challenging time starting school – the long days can be really tiring, and I was worried his attention span wouldn’t be long enough. But he’s been brilliant.”
In fact, when he comes home to their modern, light-filled house in the central Auckland suburb of Westmere, Zach drags out the whiteboard and shows off what he’s learned at school.
At bedtime, he now reads stories to Wendy; she gets a little sentimental when she ponders that – for so long, it was the other way around. “Addy was a very good reader; Liv wasn’t as much into it. But I’m actually surprised how interested Zach is,” the proud mum says.
Of course, she’s reluctant to compare her only son to his female siblings, as she’s discovered over the past five years that boys are “a very different kettle of fish”.
“They’re less chatty and more self-focused on what they want to do and play with. Girls are more social; boys are more independent,” she says.
But that hasn’t stopped Liv from wanting to keep a close eye on her brother at the primary school they both attend.
“Zach has been babied – it’s like he’s grown up with three mothers. And Liv has been checking on him regularly at school, visiting him with a posse of friends at morning tea and lunchtimes. She worries about him, but I’ve told her that he’ll be okay… even Zach has to tell her that it’s okay to leave,” Wendy says, laughing.
But how has she coped with waving her baby off to school?
“Great, actually – it’s weird. I took him in on his first day, and walking out of the school gates I thought, ‘Right, this is my moment, let the floodgates open.’ But I waited, and there were no tears; just a wave of joy and happiness. I’m getting mornings to myself, Zach is good as gold at school, so everyone’s happy. Does that sound callous?”
After 11 years as a mum, Wendy is relishing having a few hours of her own in the morning, before heading in to TVNZ in the heart of the city in the early afternoon.
“Mothers always say, ‘Ooh, you’ll suddenly have all this time to yourself’, but it’s all eaten up by 1pm,” she says. “By the time you get home after taking the kids to school, there’s tidying up the disaster zone, a bit of a workout and then supermarket shopping. My ‘to-do’ list never gets any shorter.”
Wendy has always tried to maintain her fitness with running and Pilates classes. Now she’s returned to her dance roots and taken up barre classes. “It’s very painful, but great for your leg muscles,” she says.
If she’s looking for a new challenge, she could be swayed by her colleagues in the TVNZ newsroom, who’ve been running half and full marathons, like fellow newsreaders Peter Williams and Greg Boyed. “I ran the Auckland quarter marathon last year, so stepping it up is something I could do,” says Wendy.
As soon as the One News credits roll, Wendy returns to being a devoted wife and mum. She’s home from the studio by 7.30pm, around the same time as Ross, 42 – a freelance television producer and director who’s been working on the historical documentary series Descent from Disaster this year.
“The kids are always excited to see us. Sometimes we just want to have dinner, relax and talk about our days, but the kids seem to get a second wind when I come home. Zach is the worst – the girls are tired, but he’s still bouncing around.
We’re obviously not doing enough to tucker him out,” Wendy laments, although Zach is absorbed in swimming lessons and football. “He thinks he’s a champion at both. The girls do swimming, dancing, netball, speech and drama; they’re really into musical theatre at the moment. I was into singing, dancing and acting at their age, so I guess it’s no surprise.”
Wendy wears: Dress from Country Road, Jewellery from Mimco and Lovisa.
Wendy and Ross consider themselves fortunate to have had a series of trustworthy long-term nannies to care for the children in the afternoons. The day we visit Wendy at home, she’s off to buy chocolate cupcakes as a farewell treat for the latest nanny, who’s left to raise her own family.
“Once I needed someone who could change nappies and feed them bottles. Now, it’s more of a taxi service required,” she says, with a laugh.
The family has systems in place for the occasions when Wendy’s news role takes her out of Auckland and into the field – like earlier this year, when she presented live broadcasts from Gallipoli during the Anzac centenary commemorations.
“Ross kept reminding me that things were great at home, and they were now running a very tight ship. Well, that’s only because I spent hours before I left writing him to-do lists with all the kids’ schedules,” she says, with tongue only slightly in cheek.
Conveying the news from outside the studio is a prized feature of the job for Wendy, who trained and worked as a reporter for a decade before becoming a full-time presenter.
“I really love getting out and talking to people, and working with a crew. You feel part of a bigger team,” she says. “I felt honoured to be in Gallipoli, but I was very nervous before I went. I read a lot into the history of the war, to make sure we covered it properly.”
But there were a few anxious moments. As with most news teams covering events in far-off corners of the globe, Wendy and her crew were constantly battling to beat the clock and meet deadlines.
One moment was particularly hair-raising on Anzac Day: Wendy and producer Sophie Baird were heading to the battlefield of Chunuk Bair just as the dawn service at Anzac Cove ended, to report live to the 6pm news back home.
“We had a short time to get there, but you know what they say about the best-laid plans,” Wendy says. In the darkness, they jumped on the wrong bus; when they realised their mistake, the two Kiwis struggled to get their message across to a Turkish bus driver who didn’t speak English.
“We were on the verge of tears,” Wendy recalls, until they stopped a passing car that was also heading to Chunuk Bair. “We begged them for a ride; we even said we would lie on the car floor. Somehow we got there just in time to go live on air.”
Although a healthy rivalry exists between the television news networks, Wendy couldn’t help but feel sadness when broadcaster John Campbell left TV3 in May. “I know the newsrooms at both TVNZ and TV3 were sad to see John go. We all want to see strong news and current affairs on television,” she says.
In 1998, Wendy was a rookie reporter at TV3 when Campbell was assigned to mentor her. “Forever grateful for his wise words,” she tweeted when his departure was announced.
Campbell replied on Twitter: “You didn’t need my (not very) wise words. But thanks for pretending you did!”
“For me personally, it was a big day when he left,” Wendy says. “Having worked with him at TV3, you can see why so many people love and adore him. He’s very genuine and thinks of other people constantly. It was a loss, but I know he will be back, just as strong, in another role.”
Next January, Wendy will celebrate the milestone of 10 years as the One News co-presenter; she’s looking forward to a celebratory lunch with Simon Dallow. While technology has advanced, and people in the newsroom have come and gone, her task has essentially remained the same.
“It’s still one hour at 6pm, and Simon and I are still together. The way we do things may have evolved, but really the recipe is the same,” Wendy says.
“Yet I’m always trying to improve; I’ve always been quite judgemental of what I do. But I still take John Campbell’s advice: ‘You have good nights and you have bad nights.’ You make mistakes, but you can’t beat yourself up over them.
“I used to be quite career focused and ambitious, doing amazing stories and climbing the newsreading ladder. But my focus has changed so much since becoming a mother – now my kids come first. Family is so important to me, and I feel very lucky and grateful for that.”
Wendy’s top five tips for mums
Stop worrying… enjoy your kids! Sometimes we’re so busy rushing around, we forget that they are the BEST little things in our lives. Take time to enjoy them, laugh with them; don’t sweat the small stuff.
Don’t get involved in your kids’ schoolyard battles. There’s always a story of how ‘He’s picking on me’, ‘They won’t play with me’, ‘She’s calling me bad names’. It’s best to let them sort it out, even though sometimes it’s hard not to march right over there and tell that mean kid off! Show your kids how to be kind and encourage self-confidence.
Don’t fret if your child doesn’t seem to be performing at school or in sport. You want them to be hitting their stride as a young adult so there are many years yet for the child to find their way.
Everything is a phase. You think your baby will never sleep through the night, eat vegetables or stop throwing tantrums. Suddenly they’re 11 and giving you advice!
Make time for you, your friends and your husband, because pretty soon those wee angels will grow up and need you less and less.
Photos: Jackie Meiring
Hair and make-up by: Aimie Fiebig
Styling by: Clifton Piper
In first image Wendy wears: Jumper from Witchery, Pants from Country Road, Jewellery from Mimco and Zoe and Morgan.
