Barnaby Joyce's estranged wife has accused him of cruelly taunting her by giving their favourite boy's name to the newborn son he had with his former staffer.
Natalie Joyce broke her silence about the heartbreak she suffered following the breakdown of her 24-year marriage to the former Nationals leader following his affair with Vikki Campion.
In an unpaid interview with The Australian Women's Weekly, Mrs Joyce said she was stunned when her former husband and Ms Campion chose to name their son Sebastian as it was the name they had selected in case they had a boy while they were still married. The former couple has four daughters.
"It felt like another malicious taunt in a very long line of appalling behaviour," she told the magazine.
Mrs Joyce said she made the decision to do an unpaid magazine interview before she had knowledge of her former partner's $150,000 “tell-all” television interview with Ms Campion.
Barnaby Joyce, alng with his wife Natalie and daughters, gestures as he claims victory for the seat of New England in 2016. Source: AAP
She said the decision was purely motivated by a need to set a strong example for her four daughters, whom she describes as “the real victims here”.
Mrs Joyce said she felt silly for thinking her marriage had a hope of being revived after Ms Campion entered their lives.
“I was so stupid to think we had a chance,” she said. “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.”
The first impression she had of Ms Campion set the tone for subsequent interactions, she revealed.
“She wanted my life from the get-go. This was a whole lot more than a fleeting office romance. The first day I met her, back in 2016 she was so cold,” she said.
The final showdown involved explicit words, but Mrs Joyce said she is proud she “stood up to her”.
“I was very measured and didn’t raise my voice. She and Barney were smoking outside. He bolted when he saw me. 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***.”
In last month’s paid television interview with Channel Seven, Ms Campion said she could not repeat the words Mrs Joyce said to her in their final confrontation.
Barnaby Joyce and his partner Vikki Campion have been quizzed by a parliamentary expenses watchdog. Source: AAP
"I can't repeat the words on television...we both know what happened that day and I don't think it's relevant for everyone else to," Ms Campion said.
In that same interview, Ms Campion also revealed that she had contemplated having an abortion, but only got as far as obtaining the medicine before deciding she could not go through with it.
She also claimed that Barnaby Joyce’s “conservative” Nationals colleagues pressured her to have an abortion.
Mr Joyce said he had never intended the affair to unfold in the way it did, but he had been “living a lie” towards the end of his 24-year marriage.
“You show me the person who has a perfect marriage and I'll show you a liar,” Mr Joyce told Channel Seven’s Sunday Night.
The money from the television interview has been put into a trust for baby Sebastian.
Barnaby Joyce's estranged wife has accused him of cruelly taunting her. Source: AAP
Mrs Joyce told The Women's Weekly she and her daughters watched the television interview with a growing sense of anger.
"It was all we could do to watch it without throwing a brick at the TV," Mrs Joyce said.
"I wasn’t surprised she sold their story and certainly not surprised the $150,000 went to her child, but it begs the question, how could Barney have allowed his four girls to be overlooked? In saying that, I wouldn’t want a cent of that money."
- Additional reporting by AAP.
