Photography: Amalia Osborne.
Just like any expectant mother, Sky Sport presenter Kimberlee Ritchie was given a lot of advice while she was pregnant, the most common being, “The days will be slow, but the weeks will go fast.”
She has no idea what those people were on about.
“I’m like, what!?” she laughs.
“It’s all fast! I haven’t had one slow day. Where have these six months gone?”
Motherhood, says Kim, has been a wild ride since she and her husband, ThreeNews sports presenter Ollie Ritchie, welcomed their gorgeous son Nico Tai in June. And now, as she heads back to work for the first time, she is preparing to cover some of Aotearoa’s best summer sporting fixtures, such as the ASB Classic and A-League football. She treasures the time she has spent with her wee boy.
A new chapter in family life
“It’s been incredibly rewarding,” says Kim, 35.
“Honestly, I was never one of those women who’s always gone, ‘I can’t wait to have a family.’ It was only after I met Ollie that I was dead sure I wanted it to be the case. It’s been far more joyful than
I could have ever imagined.”
Her maternity leave has marked the first time since she was 18 that Kim hasn’t been actively working in journalism – she first cut her teeth on the TVNZ assignments desk while still at university. Kim, who has always been ambitious and job-focused, says the pivot from rugby sidelines to the nursery chair was at first “odd” but then “better than I’d thought”.
Balancing identity and ambition
She explains, “I’ve always been a very career-driven person and work has been a key part of my identity. And look, it remains an important part, but what I’ve learnt through this stage of life is
that you don’t have to swap out one identity for another – you can be both. And that’s really, really cool. “My time away from work has been a real blessing and in many ways the transition was not as hard as I thought it might be. I fell really naturally into the patterns of being home with Nico and I had so much to focus on with him, I actually didn’t mind that I wasn’t working. But as time has gone on, I’ve found myself being drawn back into what’s going on in the sports world.”
Courtside with mom
Of course, two game-loving parents have already immersed Nico in plenty of action, mostly during late-night feeds! Now, as Kim prepares to cover a packed summer of sport, her little man will get the chance to join her courtside. He will be at the ASB Classic.
“I guess there’s two sides to going back – the practical stuff, like, ‘How am I actually going to do this?’ to the mental and emotional side,” she says.
Family support makes it possible
“I imagine it’ll hit quite hard when I’m there! But I’m so lucky. I have a huge amount of support around me – Ollie is absolutely the best and seeing him become a father has been one of the single coolest things in my life. “Sky has been amazing – they’ve sorted it so Nico can come with me to the tennis so I can feed. He’ll be there along with his nana, which makes life so much easier.”
As for Nico? He’s a dream, his proud mum says.
“We’re very lucky – we have a chill baby, which makes parenting easier!” she enthuses. “I mean, of course there are hard moments, but then your baby smiles at you and you just forget it all… You’re so wrapped up in that moment of happiness.”
The ASB Classic screens from 5 January on Sky Open and streams on Sky Go.
