Twist in Samantha Armytage's shock split from husband Richard Lavender

Samantha Armytage, 48, shocked fans last week as she confirmed her split from husband Richard Lavender, 61, just weeks before their fourth wedding anniversary on New Year's Eve. While news of the split came as quite a surprise to most people last week, an insider has told Yahoo Lifestyle the break-up has apparently been widely speculated within the TV industry for months now thanks to one telling clue.

Samantha's big return to the spotlight, after moving from Channel Seven to Channel Nine, is believed to be the major hint something wasn't right within her relationship. An insider tells Yahoo Lifestyle, "As soon as Sam announced she was leaving Seven for Nine and making a big TV comeback, we all started suspecting something had happened as her main reason for initially quitting Sunrise was to be with him and settle down away from the industry."

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Samantha confirmed that her relationship with Richard was part of why she left Sunrise in 2021, telling Woman's Day last year that she loved her new quiet life with him in the Southern Highlands.

"[Farming] is in my blood. I’m back to where I began. This is sort of Act Two of my life," Samantha said at the time. "I’m proud of myself that I made that jump into the complete unknown, because I didn’t know what would come after that. I was newly married, so I had Rich to help me through, and I knew I wanted to be back in the country, so I jumped off the cliff."

After confirming the split, Daily Mail began speculating that tensions between the former Sunrise star and Richard's adult daughters caused the marriage breakdown, however, this has not been confirmed.

The insider tells Yahoo Lifestyle, "Sam’s been keeping the details pretty quiet but the impression everyone gets is she just wasn’t ready to retire and give everything up yet, which is more likely to have caused tensions as Rich is notoriously private."

Samantha Armytage announces shock split from husband Richard Lavender

Samantha confirmed she and Richard split up, sharing a statement with the Daily Telegraph.

"Yes, Richard and I have separated. All breakups are hard, but it’s somewhat lessened by the fact it’s amicable and we wish the best for each other," she told the publication. "I appreciate you respecting our privacy. I won’t be making any further comment."

The publication reports that the pair initially split up several months ago, and the former Sunrise presenter moved out of Richard's NSW Southern Highlands home and returned to Sydney, where she previously lived while working in breakfast TV.

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Samantha and Richard first began dating in April 2019 and announced their engagement in June 2020. They got married on New Year's Eve of the same year, keeping things quite small due to the Covid restrictions at the time.

They planned their wedding in just three days, with Sam revealing on Sunrise, "Three days before we decided we'd do it for New Year's Eve."

"We did it, we got it done. It was a little bit stressful for me, but Rich was very relaxed.

"It was dad, my dad, we were all sitting around, at Christmas time as you do, having a champagne and beer on the verandah, and dad said because of COVID and everyone's in lockdown…dad said ‘just do it, for god’s sake, just do it,’ so we did it!"

"It was nice, there was 12 of us there, we organised it in three days and it was fun."

Samantha will no doubt be kept quite busy with her move to Nine, where she will host The Golden Bachelor next year, as well as fill in for the Today Show hosts when they are on Christmas leave.

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