“She wanted my life”: Natalie Joyce opens up about the moment she confronted Vikki Campion
Barnaby Joyce's estranged wife Natalie has revealed the moment she confronted her husband’s mistress Vikki Campion in a last ditch bid to save her marriage.
“I was very measured. I didn't raise my voice. She and Barney were smoking outside. He bolted when he saw me,” she said. “I turned to her and said, ‘My husband is out of bounds, off-limits, he's a married man with four children'', and then I called her a home-wrecking wh***. It was not one of my finer moments but, looking back, I'm proud I stood up to her.”
Amid the months of scandal surrounding her husband’s affair with his former media advisor, Natalie Joyce has been praised for her “quiet dignity”. But now in an unpaid tell-all interview with Australian Women’s Weekly, she feels compelled to break her silence to “defend our (family’s) name” and so her four daughters – Bridgette, 21, Julia, 20, Caroline, 19, and Odette, 15 - “feel empowered, and know their mum stood up and defended our fine name”.
In the interview, Natalie, 48, recalls her first impressions of Vikki Campion in 2016 at the Joyces' family home.
"She was so cold," Natalie said of Vikki’s icy demeanour. "She wanted my life from the get-go. This was a whole lot more than a fleeting office romance."
A few months later Natalie suspected something between her 50-year-old husband and his 33-year-old staffer.
“After watching them at the Nationals Christmas party, I had a feeling they were having an affair," Natalie told The Weekly. "As it turned out their tawdry union was the worst kept secret in Canberra.”
As their marriage crumbled and the news broke that Vikki was carrying Barnaby’s baby, Natalie was still determined to save her marriage of 24 years.
"I asked him to come home," she recalls. "He said, 'I can't, she's pregnant and I have to be there for my son.' He always wanted a boy and, while the girls really are the epicentre of his universe, we had no chance: she was giving him a son."
But there was more humiliation to come. When the name of Barnaby and Vikki's son was revealed in April to be Sebastian, it was a personal kick in the guts for Natalie.
"It felt like another malicious taunt in a very long line of appalling behaviour," said Natalie.
Had they ever had a son, they had always planned to name him Sebastian.
Of the much-talked about Sunday Night interview, Natalie labelled it an “absolute disgrace”. But it didn’t come as a surprise to Natalie that Vikki was the driving force behind it.
"I wasn't surprised she sold their 'exclusive' story, and certainly not surprised the $150,000 went to her child, but it begs the question, if Barney agreed to be a part of it, how could he allow his four girls to be overlooked? In saying that, I wouldn't want a cent of that money. It was all we could do to watch it without throwing a brick at the TV!" she said.