Leigh Sales’ two sons have never been particularly interested in any of the shows she’s worked on. But, back when they were younger and she was in the demanding role of hosting 7.30 on weeknights, they would pay a lot of attention to how she looked.
“I remember, when they were little, if I came downstairs with make-up on, they would be very suspicious – because they associate my wearing make-up with going out or going to work,” Leigh, 52, tells TV WEEK. “They’d be like, ‘Why have you got make-up on?’ Very, very suspicious!
“They don’t really care what I’m doing. They don’t care about Chat 10 [her podcast with Annabel Crabb] or The Assembly. They’ve never watched Australian Story. They’re not into it. They just like their mum being around.”
Leigh’s sons have had her around a lot more since she made the decision to walk away from 7.30 nearly four years ago. As for Leigh herself, the only thing she misses is the “fun” of big news days.
“You’re waiting for somebody to show up for a press conference, or for something to happen… just all the funny jokes that get cracked while you’re waiting around,” she remembers. “But, mostly, when I see a big story happen now I just feel relief that I’m not on it… with the exception of the Kyle and Jackie O meltdown. I’m reading every word of that. I just want to be on that court case!”
Leigh’s life doesn’t have the same pressure it used to have, now that she doesn’t have to be “front and centre” every night, but there’s still stress.
“I think, whatever age your kids are, parenting is always a lot,” she says. “So I feel like I’ve always got low-level stress, just because there are people in the world that I love and I worry about things happening to them.”
Of course, Leigh’s current job as host of The Assembly isn’t entirely stress-free either. The show is now in its third season and, this time around, autistic journalism students from the first two seasons have returned to interview six new celebrities. The six are comedians Andy Lee and Dave Hughes, actress Claudia Karvan, musicians Jimmy Barnes and Jessica Mauboy, and iconic Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe.
With the students having already completed a season of The Assembly, they’re now more confident about asking questions. Leigh admits she’s always a bit worried about how she’s going to keep the interview on track.
“The flip side of everyone getting more confident is they’re more likely to take matters into their own hands rather than follow the plan,” she says with a smile. “So it definitely keeps me on my toes.”
Leigh also worries when the students want to ask the celebrities questions that are “really personal”. This happened last season, when Oliver wanted to ask Guy Sebastian about losing his virginity. This season, one of the students wants to ask Ian Thorpe if he’s dating anyone at the moment – and Leigh is aware that Ian doesn’t often talk about his personal life.
“I was kind of nervous about that,” she says. “But I also felt that Ian’s very experienced at not answering stuff if he doesn’t want to answer it. So I felt comfortable that he would be okay.”
Leigh doesn’t often talk about her own personal life either. She admits that she finds it awkward being interviewed.
“When you’re the interviewer, you get used to having all the control,” she explains. “So it’s intimidating to be the person getting the questions, not giving the questions. And, in fact, I find in interviews I often start seizing control!”
That said, she would agree to be interviewed by The Assembly students.
“There’s no agenda, no snarkiness. No one’s laying traps for anyone, no one’s trying to embarrass anyone. Whatever they ask you is always motivated by genuine curiosity.”
In season one Leigh was taken by surprise when one of the students, Dale, asked actor Sam Neill if he’d go out with her on a date. This time, she’s the one making jokes about her love life, in the Dave Hughes episode.
“They asked Hughesy if he’d ever pashed anybody famous. He said, ‘Oh look, I don’t want to kiss and tell,’ and I said, ‘Oh, thanks, Hughesy, I appreciate that,’ and everyone was laughing at that.”
She says the students are always looking for “people to hook me up with”.
“They’re always picking celebrities and going: ‘Oh, you should go out on a date with him, Leigh.’ They’re constantly finding people,” she laughs.
Leigh is loving her work on The Assembly and Australian Story, and also having the time to mentor young journalists away from the cameras. She’s also determined to be open to “different things”. One of which is a cookbook she’s written with her friend, Gwen Blake, called The Holiday Kitchen.
“I’m always slow to do things, because it has to fit around work and the boys,” she explains. “But two years ago we were on holiday together, and we both love cooking. We just got yapping, and said: ‘Oh, we’re quite good at this, we should do a cookbook.’”
Leigh says she does a lot of “low-rent” entertaining. “There’s nothing I like more than testing something in the kitchen and having a friend pop around and perch at the bench with a glass of wine while I chop things up and throw things together.
“I absolutely love that. And I just love the sound of a heap of people sitting around the table, laughing their arses off. There’s just no better sound in the world.”
You can watch The Assembly on ABC or ABC iview.
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