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Panic attack pause for Nate Byrne

“Some of you may know that I occasionally get affected by some panic attacks, and actually that’s happening right now," said News Breakfast presenter Nate Byrne.

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“I’m actually going to need to stop for a second,” ABC weather presenter Nate Byrne told News Breakfast viewers this morning.

“Some of you may know that I occasionally get affected by some panic attacks, and actually that’s happening right now.

“Lisa, maybe I could hand back to you?”

With that, ABC host Lisa Millar took Byrne’s lead and calmly explained to viewers that Byrne has experienced panic attacks before, including during live television.

“Nate wrote a great piece on the ABC online website about this and I reckon we might re-up it, put it on our socials, so you can have a bit of a read because it’s fantastic that he has been so open and transparent about it,” Millar said.

“The response when he first wrote about it and spoke about it was that everyone said, ‘Oh thank god, Nate’s not perfect, we thought he was perfect, but actually he’s now sharing something.’”

Byrne later returned to the host set to give viewers an update on his condition.

“Sorry if I gave anybody a bit of a scare,” he said.

“You’ve been very honest before about getting panic attacks on air and it’s great for people to know that it can happen to anyone,” Millar acknowledged.

Meanwhile Carrie Bickmore has also described being on the verge of constant panic attacks for the best part of a decade of Live television.

“Sometimes, I’d have the panic attacks while I was on air reading the news and I would disguise it as shortness of breath or my quavering voice with coughs or laughs or technical difficulties,” she said on radio.

“I kind of never know when they were going to come, so I was constantly on alert – hyper vigilant, I guess – in case one was around the corner, so it’s just like all I could think about. I often think about how I managed to string a sentence together any time on air because that was at the forefront of my mind.”

Health Direct: Panic attacks

12 Responses

  1. Both Nate and Lisa handled this situation perfectly. You can tell they genuinely care about each other.

    Had no idea about Carrie’s issues with panic attacks but I’m glad she felt comfortable to share her experiences.

    Thank you Nate and Carrie, and Lisa for being a great support.

  4. I applaud the ABC News Breakfast team for being so professional and supportive and for accepting this as part of the makeup of one of their finest assets. I’m sure there are thousands of viewers out there who can relate and also feel seen by this.

    2. Surely live TV is not a great environment for someone who suffers from this problem. There would be plenty of roles on and off camera that are far safer.

      1. That could be said about reporters who go to various places to report and run the risk of getting injured on live tv and get hit on the head with a drink can or being knocked over by an ex politician at an airport but they continue to do their job.

  7. He’s such a champ for being so open and upfront about this. And handled it so well.

    I saw him speak at an APS LGBTQA+ conference last year and I’ve got a lot of time for him. Genuinely decent guy.

  8. I admire people who are on tv and share their medical experience with their viewers….they are not just a face in front of camera who have an image to upload…I have never forgotten Wally Lewis doing the sport report on Nine and having an epileptic seizure..but he carried on…then later went on to explain.

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