‘Getting crushed’: Sunrise star on how ‘toughest time’ led to family decision
Edwina Bartholomew reveals how life has changed as she puts a battle behind her.
Sunrise star Edwina Bartholomew put it candidly when discussing her family’s big life change: “We no longer live in the city,” she shared in an essay penned as guest editor of Australian Women’s Weekly’s July 2026 issue.
“Sure, I go back and forth for work at Sunrise on Channel Seven, but the kids always stay put in the country in the care of my husband Neil.
“I relish that time to myself in the big smoke, doing a job I absolutely adore while the kids are thriving in their new rural routine.”
It was back in November 2023 when Edwina and her husband – former digital media executive Neil Varcoe – fell in love with the picture-perfect village of Carcoar, NSW.
The duo happened to visit for the first time on a driving holiday with their children Molly, six, and Tommy, three.
Seeing the local inn was for sale, and realising its potential, they sent the listing to some “entrepreneurial friends” for consideration.
“It wasn’t until we found ourselves driving east, back in Sydney, along the heaving M4 with two sleeping kids in the car, that we considered it could be us,” Edwina shared in a column for Country Style in January 2026
“Could we leave Sydney? Could we move to the country? Could we run a pub? The answer was no.
“We couldn’t leave Sydney. Yet. We couldn’t move to the country. Yet. We couldn’t run a pub. Ever. But the idea stuck.”
When the couple returned to Carcoar a few months later and saw that another property – an 1880s guest house – was for sale, they decided to sell their Sydney home, buy it and transform it into a boutique hotel – Saltash Farm.
And there a new chapter began – for the couple’s kids and them as well.
It was a change that desperately needed to happen. In June 2023, Neil went public with a diagnosis of chronic fatigue that had left him floored.
“Some days, I would only have the energy to shower before Fatigue would wrap itself around me like chain mail. Just a shower, four metres from my bedroom. No teeth. Back to sleep,” he shared in an emotional Instagram post at the time.
“Chronic Fatigue is a mystery. There are no cures and no confirmed treatments. I’ve been to more doctors and specialists than I can count. I’ve taken so many supplements in a day that I almost rattle when I walk. It’s hard on me, but it’s harder on the ones who love you,” he added.
“It’s hard to explain to a three-year-old that you can read her one bedtime story, but that’s all you can manage today.”
Today, Edwina reflects on how both she and Neil were “getting crushed in the city” before their decision to move to the NSW Central West.
“Originally from Lithgow, Neil was done with the urban rat-race and wanted to return to the west,” the star wrote in Australian Women’s Weekly. “He was so sick with chronic fatigue that parenting wasn’t even possible. It was the toughest time we have ever faced as a family.”
Three years on, life is different – for Neil as well as Edwina, who has been through her own health journey with Chronic myeloid leukaemia – and the pair have a “new lease on life”
Edwina shared that Neil’s chronic fatigue is “all but cured” and her own health battles “are also behind us”.
And as a result, the star declared: “We plan to give this country life a very good crack.”
But what does that mean for Edwina’s storied television career? The star is beloved by the Sunrise audience and has survived multiple redundancy rounds at Channel Seven over the years.
“There’s mounting rumours she has a handshake deal with management that once their latest hotel is up and running, she will re-negotiate a new deal with Seven,” a source previously told Woman’s Day.
“Which could mean the end of her more than 23 years at the network, or she may just do the occasional special project.”
Whatever the future holds, it’s clear country life yields plenty of benefits.
“They’ve got great friends in the community already,” the source says of the couple’s Carcoar network. “Neil and Eddy just want their kids to have the best of country life.”
