She’s called her weekend presenting bulletin home for more than nine years but Felgate has now decided to pursue new opportunities.
The Herald Sun is reporting Seven News Melbourne weekend sports presenter Jacqui Felgate has announced her shock departure from the program, having read her last bulletin Sunday night.
Joining Seven nine and a half years ago, Felgate is both pursuing new opportunities and taking time to give back to her family.
She told the Herald Sun:
“The last two years have been really hard on every family and while newsrooms are wonderful places and I’ve had a wonderful career in the newsroom, it’s time.
“And I’ve got a very young family and I haven’t been there enough for them and I want to be there for them over the next little while. And at the same time I’ve been presented with so many exciting and new opportunities that I’m really keen to explore and I’m looking forward to those too.
“I’ve worked every weekend for 19 years coming from papers into two newsrooms [both Nine and Seven] and it’ll be really lovely to have some time way from that cut and thrust of news.
“It’s an exciting job and there’s nothing left on my bucket list I feel I need to do in the newsroom. I look back at that time and I’ve worked with the most wonderful people in the most wonderful environment and I’ll miss them all, but at the same time there’s two people that miss me a lot [daughters Maddie, 9, and Georgia, 5] and my husband Michael.”
Felgate shared a touching tribute to her husband in an Instagram post following her last Seven News bulletin.
A key figure in Seven’s football coverage and co-host of the Brownlow, Felgate is still in talks about continuing in those sporting roles with Seven, and thus hasn’t left the network entirely.
She said:
“Seven sport has been the highlight, doing the football has been the highlight and I hope to be involved still in some way but we’re working through what that might look like.
“It’s not easy having a young family and juggling the work that’s required to be a journalist.
“If I can just take a step back and see what opportunities present themselves it will be a great time for my family.
“Every single parent and family knows exactly what the juggle is like. The last few years have made that clearer, what are your priorities in life and what do you want to do next. I’ve been offered some great opportunities but with a lot less pressure.”
In her last on-air bulletin, Felgate said she had a wonderful time with Seven, but admitted the past two years had been tough due to the pandemic.
While getting teary, she added:
“I’m looking forward to being a good mum to my kids.”
A montage of Felgate presenting in her final Seven News bulletin is below.
Seven News Melbourne’s director of news, Shaun Menegola, told staff on Sunday:
“As we all know, Jacqui has been a great champion of 7NEWS in Melbourne, including through the past two taxing years of COVID.
“She was not only front and centre on our pandemic coverage, but she extended that commitment across social media, working tirelessly to keep Victorians up to date.
“Jacqui has always had a strong presence on our 4.00pm and 6.00pm bulletins.
“We’ve been guided by Jacqui in terms of the timing of this announcement, and she goes with our full support.”
Felgate tested positive to COVID-19 earlier in the year, simultaneously managing her diagnosis while helping and updating followers on social media with the latest news of COVID-19 in Victoria.
Felgate’s departure comes less than a month after Cameron Williams announced his departure from the sports presenting role at rival Nine News in Sydney.
