Photography: Emily Chalk.
Seven Sharp’s Sacha McNeil has recently hit two major life milestones – her 50th birthday and 25 years as a broadcaster. She celebrated both with a nod to her beloved father Bob McNeil, the veteran journalist who died more than a year ago.
The mum of two, who loves crafts, camping and the beach, marked her big day with the people she loves.
“I had some of my best friends and my family around for a barbecue – it wasn’t anything flashy,” she tells.
“It sounds so twee, but I just felt so grateful to get to 50 because I’ve had friends who haven’t. How good that I could have a barbecue with my friends, drink Champagne and eat cake. “I also had my first swim of the year on my 50th. The beach is called Granny’s Bay, which is very apt,” she says with a laugh.
Her birthday week also included a holiday in the Coromandel. There was one thing missing though – her dad, who had Alzheimer’s.
“He’d been in the dementia home for so long and around birthdays, the kids and I would always visit him and take him some cake,” she recalls.
Mixed feelings after his death
“It was strange not to visit him.”
His death was a time of mixed feelings for Sacha – her grief combined with a sense of relief that her father, who had been in a dementia ward for seven years, was finally free.
“Once he passed away, I had this real sense of hearing his old voice again, rather than him being trapped in this body, in this brain, that wasn’t working for him anymore,” she admits.
Remembering her dad
When Bob died in December 2024, tributes poured in for the broadcaster, honouring his talent as a journalist and his ability to handle light and shade with equal prowess.
“It was nice to remember how he was before,” reflects Sacha.
“People were celebrating him and telling stories from back in the day. And so, you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s right, he was like that.’”
Family moving forward
More than a year on, she says her family is missing Bob but doing well.
“Mum was so loyal and committed to being by his side the entire way through, so for her, the loss is huge, but she’s living in a village now, has lots of support and is living her best life. “That’s what he’d want. He wouldn’t have wanted her to be sitting in a dementia ward, holding his hand all the time, which is what she was doing.”
Sacha is philosophical about ageing and the change it can bring. Her own life has altered considerably in recent years. She’s lost a parent, her kids are now teens, and she recently cohabited with her new partner and his children.
Happy in this stage of life
“I’m really happy in this stage of life,” she enthuses.
“It’s taught me that things don’t stay the same and you’ve got to move with it. Life is busy and full, but it’s also a very happy life.”
Full with work, family and a menagerie of animals at her Auckland home.
“I come out in the mornings with enough kids to get up, but then the guinea pig Basil is yelling at me from his little cage to take him his carrots, Bumble the free-range bunny comes hopping in the back door expecting his breakfast and Dennis the ginger cat comes through the cat door demanding his biscuits,” she laughs.
“Then the dog needs to go to the toilet and I’m just like, ‘I’m a farm hand!’ “I love it, but this is not normal in suburbia! We had a lamb in the backyard for a while as well. His name was Pete As, like Sweet As. That didn’t last for too long – he went back to the farm.”
Pete As was a throwback to her days in rural Hamilton.
“Mum and Dad let us have lots of animals, so I had it in my head we could do it in Auckland suburbia. It was fun for a short time.”
From Hamilton farms to storytelling
As a child, Sacha thought she’d become a vet, but with a teacher mum and a journalist dad, telling stories was in her veins.
“I just loved the buzz of the newsroom,” she tells.
“When I was a kid, I’d go into the Hamilton radio station where Dad worked. It was the 1980s, and they’d be smoking cigarettes and on typewriters, that old-school Gliding On kind of situation. I always thought it was magical.”
Growing up in a newsroom
The family moved to Auckland in 1989, where Bob became one of the founding journalists at TV3.
Sacha remembers, “I did my work experience at TV3 when I was at university and when I was at school, I used to go in my school holidays and follow my dad or the camera crews around.”
She looked up to reporters, such as Carolyn Robinson and Hilary Barry, who are now her colleagues at Seven Sharp.
“Hilary was a major mentor for me at TV3 and has always been so generous with advice,” she says.
“I’ve been lucky to have someone who’s one of the best broadcasters in the industry to be able to tap into.”
Experience in the hot seat
Sacha, whose presenting experience includes Firstline, Nightline, Sunrise and reading the news at TVNZ, still enjoys time in the hot seat when she fills in presenting Seven Sharp. She no longer gets nervous but remembers some harrowing moments.
“I was the first one on air with the Christchurch earthquakes,” she recalls.
“I had just finished the midday news and was pregnant with Arte. I remember [TV3 news boss] Mark Jennings saying, ‘Get back down to the studio. Don’t take off your make-up. You’re going straight on air.’ “We had footage coming through that no one had even seen yet. We had to keep warning the audience, ‘This is raw footage.’ “I remember crossing to Jenny Harper, who I now work with, and she was amazing. She was in the thick of it, having just experienced it herself. You have such respect for people like that, then you get to work with them years later. “Hilary then stepped in and covered the story for many hours.”
Remembering her father
She says Bob would have loved Seven Sharp.
“It would have been right up his alley,” she reflects.
“He was such a cheeky reporter. He could turn his hand to some really harrowing stories and get the right tone. But he could also be really naughty.”
Like the time he told the nation live on TV he had taken too few undies away, so was wearing his inside out.
Growing up in his shadow
“Dad started in telly when I was just going into my teens and I’m going to high school, just trying to keep my head down and Dad’s doing things that I really don’t want to see on the telly!” she smiles, shaking her head.
Sacha now has two teenage children of her own – Isla, 16, and Arte, 14.
Inheriting her dad’s passion
“Both the kids have got Dad in them,” she shares.
“Isla got his literary gene and Arte got his obsession with sport. Arte is super-active, and his energy and his enthusiasm for sport rub off on you. Dad was exactly the same. “I’ve done way more stories on sports than I’ve ever done in my entire life, which makes some people laugh,” she says.
But like her dad, she really values the human connection.
Memorable interviews
“I’ve interviewed some amazing people,” Sacha tells.
“I interviewed a family who had hidden a two-year-old Jewish girl in their home in Amsterdam during the war. They moved to Paekākāriki and never knew what had happened to this little girl. Suddenly, 65 years later, they managed to contact her, and she came over to New Zealand and met them.”
She’s grateful to still be telling stories when the media has faced challenges, like the closure of Newshub.
Honouring his legacy
“Dad was still around, but not in any way able to comprehend it,” she muses.
“I’m just really thankful he didn’t know that happened because he was one of those who worked so hard to get it off the ground. “He liked to move with the times, he liked to know what people thought and what was modern. So he would understand that obviously things change, but I think he would probably always want people to remember that it’s about the people, the stories, the connections and the understanding.”
Continuing the legacy in her own way
It’s a legacy that Sacha is continuing this year, after some downtime camping in the upper North Island, where she has the recipe for a perfect trip.
“I always like to have something to do in my hands while I’m camping,” she laughs.
“I like to have a glass of gin, my crochet and my deckchair!”
