From friends to soulmates! Natalie Barr’s three-decade love story with her husband Andrew is a modern day fairytale

Natalie Barr has been a familiar face on our morning television for almost two decades.

But, as a constant voice for Australians, it’s easy to forget she is private about her personal life.

For most of her career, the journalist has kept her film editor husband Andrew and their sons Hunter and Lachlan out of the tabloids.

However, what she has shared about her family paints a wholesome picture – especially her love story with her husband.

While romcoms romanticise love at first sight, most people can agree that a slow burn is underrated, and that’s exactly what happened to Nat.

“My husband, Andrew, started out as my flatmate. He moved in with my girlfriend Kylie and me and we became best friends,” Natalie revealed to the Sydney Morning Herald in 2019.

“We’d hang out a lot and he became as good a friend as any of my girlfriends. Somewhere along the line our relationship just changed – it was a natural evolution, and one day we realised that it was something more.

“We’ve been together 30 years now and I feel so lucky that we started as best friends. It’s a great way to begin a marriage.”

When they first met, Nat and Andrew were at university, but the couple changed course when the Sunrise host left school to pursue cadetships.

Her decision ultimately paved the way for the couple’s biggest journey together.

As a journalist, Nat could freelance, so when Andrew wanted to move to the United States for his career, she was able to follow and avoid a long-distance relationship.

While living in Los Angeles, she landed jobs as a freelance producer for a variety of television stations. Then, in 1995, when they decided to come home, she landed her career-making gig on Seven Network.

During that same year, they made their love official by getting married and their sons, Lachlan and Hunter, soon followed.

Nat told the Australian Women’s Weekly how her family’s tight-knit bond is her ultimate priority.

“My boys and my husband are my life,” she said.

“I may have this amazing career, but they are my number one priority, and they always have been. Andrew and the boys come first. Of course, I have always been able to run out the door to cover a story when I need to, but I only ever did that when the boys were old enough to deal with it and to be left at home.”

During the profile, her sons gushed to The Weekly about their mum and dad’s encouraging parenting style.

“If I ever want to talk about something, I can always bring it up with either Mum or Dad,” said Hunter.

“And that goes both ways. If they want to know something about my life, then they only have to ask. They know they can come to me and ask. It’s an open relationship between us all.”

As a result, their son Lachlan believes Nat and Andrew’s parenting values helped them develop their independent nature.

“We have learned to think for ourselves,” he told the publication.

“We’ve grown up not being so reliant on Mum or Dad. I feel we haven’t needed them sitting alongside us every minute. And not only can we act independently, but we also think independently too. We can disagree, and we do disagree. I am very honest with my opinions.

“So, if I disagree, I will tell them. We don’t let things build up over time to become a problem. We tell each other straight up and that’s how the relationship goes.”

When The Sydney Morning Herald asked about the secret to their three-decade relationship, she revealed, “The secret to our relationship is talking. We talk a lot, all day, every day. One of the top things for us has always been respect – to respect what the other wants to do.

“That’s really important. Also, to give one another space and to talk about how you’re feeling, where you want to go in life, and to be honest.”

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