Former Good Morning presenter Mary Lambie. Photo / Emily Chalk
It’s been more than 20 years since journalist Mary Lambie left her role as the upbeat presenter of TV’s Good Morning.
But with a big laugh, she says people have finally worked out she’s not still on maternity leave and the show is now off air. (“For at least 10 years after leaving, they would genuinely ask when I was coming back!”)
She still remembers the show’s fax machine spewing endless paper, which was strewn across the studio floor, making the set look like a “teenager’s bedroom”.
After the high-profile role, Mary – a former Weekly columnist – focused on running her own businesses and raising her three children, Rebecca, now 23, and twins Jack and Elizabeth, 21, whom she shares with broadcaster husband Jim Mora.
Mary is also the founder of Socius Media (socius.co.nz), an executive media- training company based in Auckland. She works with CEOs, politicians, community leaders, authors and sportspeople, equipping them to shine in media engagements.
Tell us what your childhood in Dunedin was like.
It was fairly idyllic. I’m the third of four children. I have an older brother and sister, and my little brother is six years younger than me. We moved around a bit from Dunedin to Cromwell – back when Central Otago was barely inhabited. We eventually moved to Wellington when I was eight.
What was teenage Mary like?
I was a bit of a handful, and had my fair share of time in detention for being disruptive and loud more than anything. I liked school. I spent my final three years at boarding school in Christchurch – a school Mum and her four sisters all went to, and Mum wanted to keep the family tradition and ties to the school. Boarding suited me. Back then, we were only allowed out on weekend leave a couple of times a term. We had to run around the block every morning before breakfast, fully dressed in our school uniforms. We shared dorms with zero privacy –unlike the cubicles of today. The food was all carbs. One pudding I remember was a doughy self-saucing chocolate number called “Dad’s Favourite”, laden in calories with no nutrition. The meat was tough, the vegetables boiled to within an inch of their life. Now the menu is all poke bowls, fancy pastas and moussakas.
Why did you initially want to study law?
I pushed on to Canterbury University, thinking law would be an honourable degree to have – but I soon realised it was definitely not for me. I discovered student radio and the weekly uni newspaper in my first year, and was hooked.
You worked in Japan for three years as a Tokyo correspondent for RNZ. Was it a formative experience?
I loved studying Japanese culture at school. In standard three [age 10], one of my besties was Miko Ito – she was the daughter of the Japanese ambassador. I was intrigued by her lunchbox [bento box] full of wild and wonderful rice balls, vegetables, pickles and fish – such a departure from my Vegemite sandwiches. So coupled with the study and my friendship with Miko, I decided I must go to Japan one day. In 1991, the opportunity arose through a sister-city scholarship and off I went. I was 27 and working for RNZ. I said to my boss, “I’m going to live in Japan – want me to report back on happenings?” And the answer was a swift yes. The three years I had there were fabulous. Not life-changing so much as life-expanding.
Share a memory from working on docos with late TV personality Neil Roberts.
He was an excessive, fearless, ambitious, creative, clever and generous man. I remember tearing around town in his flash soft-top – a Ferrari or was it a Lambo? What a crazy time. We worked night and day on a doco called NZ at War. My job was to interview old soldiers, having them tell their stories. One of my grandfathers was a frontline doctor in the war and I remember him regaling compelling stories. Meeting these soldiers built on that. What brave, courageous, valiant men and women they all were.
What moments from hosting Good Morning still make you laugh?
The time my cat Louis decided to walk across the piano keys in the middle of a fairly serious interview. Or the time Laurel Watson – a fabulous cook and GM regular – picked up a potato and said, “You take one carrot and chop it like this...” Once, Jeremy Wells – who now hosts Seven Sharp – rang in during the talkback segment pretending to be Kevin and giving me quite a nonsensical conversational ride.
They let you bring your cat onto the set?
It started as a novelty as no one else was putting their pet on TV – and Louis soon developed his own fan base. Viewers went quite septic if I promised to bring him in and didn’t – mainly because I couldn’t find him in the morning. He was a bit of a nuisance, though, escaping out the studio door and weeing on the sofa.
Is there a TV moment that haunts you?
A highly embarrassing moment was the short-lived “Lambie PI” segment, which was designed to investigate viewer queries. On one occasion, I put a shout-out to an old school friend from primer two and asked what happened to a couple of others I remembered from our year – bearing in mind we were about six years old, so it was going to be a long shot. Surprisingly, one of my old classmates rang the show to tell me, live on air, that our two friends from that year had both died in a terrible car accident when they were 21. My reaction was of such shock that the producer quickly flicked to a commercial break. I was literally speechless.
What has been the most difficult question you’ve ever had to ask?
I never felt comfortable asking women why they don’t have kids. It happened a couple of times because the audience would send in the questions and it would often crop up. I certainly didn’t want to inflict any awkwardness on the talent. Her reproductive journey is her business, not ours, unless she volunteers it.
Did you learn anything from competing on Celebrity Treasure Island?
That keeping your mouth shut is the smartest way to quietly progress! Creating drama is what the producers want and it annoys them if you remain tight-lipped. I have been in the business long enough to know yapping on can end up working against you in the edit suite.
You now help people speak with confidence, but have you ever felt nervous about public speaking yourself?
Of course, and that’s what my clients find very reassuring. I have lived experience. I’ve had some very cringe-worthy in-front-of-the-mic experiences. I remember, with abject horror, emceeing a fundraiser in a massive, indoor flash car sales yard which had horrible acoustics. I was interviewing some people with cancer and they couldn’t be heard telling their most heartfelt stories. The audience wouldn’t shut up because they couldn’t hear and I could not rein them in. It was the worst public speaking engagement ever.
How challenging is it to be a small business owner?
Funny you ask... for the first time in 10 years of being in business, I’m having difficulty getting payment from a client. I have elevated it to a legal and debt-recovery level, which is annoying, costly and time-consuming. Generally, small business is challenging because you wear every hat. The highs are great, but the pressure is constant. The long and short is that if I don’t show up 100% every day, nothing moves in the business.
Is there anything readers might be surprised to know about life with your husband Jim Mora? Does he “muck in”?
Oh, he’s a domestic god – cooks, does dishes, gardens and somehow manages to keep the pool water blue. He works on his Sunday radio show pretty much seven days a week. He’s also a quiz fanatic, loves bacon hock and doesn’t walk around in barefeet – he just prefers having shoes on. He is besotted with his old Ford and refuses to upgrade.
What are the kids up to and are you near the empty-nest stage?
One is finishing off music and commerce degrees, one is in her last year of a mechatronic engineering degree and one is running his own marketing business. Two are still home-based – we’re good with this as long as they pull their weight domestically, which is often a challenge.
How is ageing treating you?
Ageing’s been a mix – I’ve embraced the confidence that comes with it and I won’t pretend I love every physical change. Strength and speed have certainly reduced. A few aches and pains, to be sure, but that goes with being 61. It’s been a while since I’ve run a marathon, but I did cycle New Zealand two years ago and last year walked the Camino. I’ve just taken up dragon boating.
Do you have any regrets?
I don’t buy into regrets. Life takes you where it takes you. There have been a few random turns, but they taught me what I needed to learn.