This week Hilary Barry turned 50 and while her Seven Sharp co-host Jeremy Wells had her close to tears with a heartfelt tribute on live TV, her husband of 21 years, Mike Barry, gave her a pink snorkle.
The hugely popular broadcaster – who told The Australian Women’s Weekly she planned to celebrate her milestone birthday with long lunches and late dinners because she prefers one-on-one time with people – has often had us in fits of laughter as she’s snorted and giggled her way through news reports.
In addition she’s delighted fans with the hilarious ways in which she calls out her more unreasonable critics.
“Zero f*s given,” was her response to a viewer who said her outfits were “just awful”.
To the woman who commented that her thighs were too big she posted on social media a close-up picture of them.
And when a viewer named Barbara complained that she was tired of being “assailed” by Hilary’s décolletage, Hilary began wearing more blouses that revealed hints of #newscleave (as she called it). The hashtag took off.
“I find humour in the things that are so utterly ridiculous,” she told The Australian Women’s Weekly. “The things that are mean, I tend to ignore. But where people are being frightfully unreasonable, I tend to find it humorous.
“I think there is a feeling among some people of ‘you’re on TV, so suck it up princess’. But I’m not always going to suck it up – I’m prepared to suck up most of it, but sometimes I’ll go… ‘No. I am a strong woman, with a loud voice, and I’m about to roar.'”
Below: Hilary donning the pink snorkle her husband gave her for her birthday. “He likes to go all out for significant birthdays. For my 40th he gave me a wheelbarrow,” she shared on Instagram.
As well as the humorous moments, though, Hilary has shown enormous compassion and professionalism over the years, earning her the well-deserved title of Best news and current affairs presenter for her work on the Christchurch terror attack at this year’s NZ TV Awards.
It is one of many awards the seasoned journalist, who began her TV broadcasting career at 23, has won over the years.
Hilary told The Australian Women’s Weekly she was not perturbed at all about turning the big 5-0 but it has given her pause for thought:
“I’m reflective in the sense that I just want to make the most of every day. My dad died at 57, so just hitting that mark you kind of go… he only had another seven years of life. Of course, he didn’t know that,” she says.
Allan Pankhurst died in 1999 from a heart attack, after battling heart disease for more than a decade.
She said, “It will always break my heart that he never got to meet his grandchildren.”
Hilary and Mike have two sons, Finn, 19, and Ned, 17, and soon face an empty nest with Finn having already left home to attend university and Ned likely to do the same.
This week Hilary told Stuff that she’s proud of being one of the oldest female presenters on TV.
She plans to “hang around” on television as long as she can to help change the paradigm that older men on television are viewed as authoritative, while older women are viewed by some as “past it”.
We can’t think of a better idea, and in the video above we celebrate some of our favourite Hilary Barry moments.
