Latest news with #maternityleave
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Shock as another Channel Nine reporter farewells the network
Another popular Channel Nine presenter is set to depart the network, one day after 9News Melbourne journalist Lana Murphy announced her maternity leave following a shock on-air gaffe. Today reporter Iza Staskowski was on-air Friday reporting from a Melbourne creek discoloured from a chemical spill, when she shared the news that she too was going on maternity leave. 'Iza, just before you go and we go... like maybe to the hospital, we want to wish you all the very best,' Today host Karl Stefanovic said. 'How are you feeling?' Iza, who joined the breakfast program in 2019, beamed with anticipation ahead of her farewell. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. The Melbourne reporter and her fiancé, Drew Jones, are expecting their first child together in several weeks. Iza wore a bright red coat that covered her figure on camera, but pulled it back to reveal her baby bump to viewers, with the microphone still in hand. 'I'm feeling really good, guys, really lucky and really, really excited for this next chapter with my partner Drew and our little bubba,' she told the team in the studio. Today hosts Karl and Sarah Abo surprised Iza at that momen with a large bouquet of flowers and a wrapped Today show onesie for the soon-to-be newest team member. 'It's so exciting, Iza, we are absolutely pumped for you,' Karl said. 'You look beautiful,' Sarah added. 'The pair of you are going to be such incredible parents. Your mat leave starts today and we're going to miss you so much.' Iza could barely contain her joy as she was handed the thoughtful presents. Iza, who joined the breakfast program in 2019, announced her maternity leave on Friday 'Mat leave starts right now!' she enthused. 'Thank you guys so much.' 'We love you, Iza,' Karl added. 'Thanks for the all hard work and good luck with everything that's coming to you in the next couple of weeks. 'We couldn't think of a better place to send you today than to a toxic algae outbreak,' he joked. Iza is the second Melbourne reporter to depart the Nine network in as many days, with her 9News colleague Lana Murphy leaving on Thursday. Lana, 31, shared a post to Instagram on Wednesday night revealing she was going on maternity leave, just days after forgetting her script during a live report and ad-libbing nonsense. Lana posted a gallery of photos, one of which captured her showing off her growing baby bump while presenting the weather. The journalist looked radiant in the photo as she announced she'd be taking time off to prepare for her second child. 'Bumping the east coast out of shot while bumping out of my role at Nine News Melbourne for a few months, eek!' she wrote. 'Final story, bathroom bump selfie, PTC & sign off. Got to work with some of my favourite humans on earth. What a dream.' Many of Lana's Channel Nine colleagues took to the comment section to offer her their well wishes. 'Best wishes for what's coming, Lana! Cheers,' wrote fellow presenter Peter Hitchener. Today show co-host Sarah Abo also posted a love heart emoji. This will be the second child for Lana and her partner, Nick Riddle, who already share a young son, Bowie. Lana's departure follows a widely shared moment when she forgot her script during a live broadcast and ad-libbed to fill the time — an incident that seemed to endear her more to viewers. She took to TikTok last week to own up to her mistake. Lana shared a clip that showed her delivering a seemingly innocuous report about school holiday activities in Melbourne. The segment quickly derailed when Lana clearly forgot her script. It seems her ad-libbing abilities may need some work, with the reporter uttering a string of unintelligible filler words. 'We will have a full list of all the possible school holiday activities and...' she said, before pausing briefly in an attempt to remember her lines.
Washington Post
4 days ago
- Lifestyle
- Washington Post
A great sandwich can be a meal, and it can also be a gift
This column comes from the Eat Voraciously newsletter. Sign up here to get one weeknight dinner recipe, tips for substitutions, techniques and more in your inbox Monday through Thursday. Despite my lifelong love for food, cooking and eating, returning to write this newsletter after maternity leave last year was an up-and-down struggle. I had been fixing meals for my family almost every day, and felt full of ideas. But connecting the dots between the off-the-cuff cooking I had relied on in the months after my baby was born and the exacting work of recipe development was proving difficult. Low on energy, I fell into a habit I picked up when I worked in France. I'd buy a baguette in the morning and use it as a base for all of my meals, breakfast through dinner. It acted as a starchy crutch. Baguette, butter and jam for breakfast. A haphazard egg or chickpea salad with torn pieces of baguette for lunch. Dinner? A sandwich on the last third of the baguette with whatever cheeses, meats or fish were in the fridge. There were countless ham sandwiches, but none were as cheerful as this one, with brie and apricots. Get the recipe: Ham and Brie Sandwich With Apricot Around that time, a friend sent me a link to Noor Murad's newsletter, NoorishByNoor. 'I suppose I should start with how I got here, and an honest confession that a couple years ago, at the very height of my career, I fell out of love with food,' Murad wrote. 'Perhaps I should have seen it coming. … But recipes just became a deadline, cooking became a balancing act and tasting food became something I had started to dread.' The first time I read this, I sympathized with it. What a vulnerable thing to write when developing recipes is your job! I was so deep in my own funk, though, that it would take me months to realize that the same thing had happened to me. Winter came, and with it a gloomy, stuck-in-the-mud panic. What if I don't know how to be a working parent? I'd think, scared that the hard-won career that I was lucky to have, and that I loved, was slipping away. By January, I knew something was really wrong. It wasn't until I took some time off work that I realized just how much had shifted in my life and my mind. My despair was not new — to me or to anyone who has struggled with significant change. When Food and Dining editor Joe Yonan interviewed cookbook author Meera Sodha for an April piece, I found solace in their conversation about depression and care. Like Sodha, I spent too many days in bed. And also like Sodha, I leaned on food and cooking to find my way back to myself. 'I would cook for pleasure, not work,' Sodha writes in her cookbook 'Dinner.' 'I wanted to try to become more aware of my mood and feelings and work out what I wanted to eat, and slowly but surely, like kindling catching, I started to feel the fire in my belly again.' For me, it was food that was cooked for me, dishes I made for my little family of three, and even the sandwiches, like this one, that I made to nourish myself. If you've been to France, you might notice a resemblance between this ham sandwich and the country's famous jambon beurre. Sold at cafes, bakeries, delis and markets, it's a simple concoction: a length of baguette split open like a book, slathered with softened butter and stuffed with ham. Jambon de Paris, a wet-brined, cured ham with a mild flavor, is commonly used, but any sliced ham will do. In this variation, I added soft brie cheese and slices of fresh apricot. Why? I could say that the brie's barnyard-y flavor complements the ham, or that the apricots look like dappled sunlight on an otherwise neutral plate of food. But it's simpler than that: It's because it brings me pleasure to eat something so rich and rewarding, something a little messy and also beautiful. It's a gift, from me to me. And now from me to you. Get the recipe: Ham and Brie Sandwich With Apricot
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Channel Nine reporter departs the network after shocking on-air gaffe
A popular Channel Nine presenter is set to depart the network, one week after making headlines due to a shock on-air gaffe. 9News Melbourne journalist Lana Murphy, 31, shared a post to Instagram on Wednesday night revealing she was going on maternity leave, just days after forgetting her script during a live report and ad-libbing nonsense. Lana posted a gallery of photos, one of which captured her showing off her growing baby bump while presenting the weather. The journalist looked radiant in the photo as she announced she'd be taking time off to prepare for her second child. 'Bumping the east coast out of shot while bumping out of my role at Nine News Melbourne for a few months, eek!' she wrote. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. 'Final story, bathroom bump selfie, PTC & sign off. Got to work with some of my favourite humans on earth. What a dream.' Many of Lana's Channel Nine colleagues took to the comment section to offer her their well wishes. 'Best wishes for what's coming Lana! Cheers,' wrote fellow presenter Peter Hitchener. Today show co-host Sarah Abo also posted a love heart emoji. This will be the second child for Lana and her partner, Nick Riddle, who already share a young son, Bowie. Lana's departure follows a widely shared moment when she forgot her script during a live broadcast and ad-libbed to fill the time — an incident that seemed to endear her more to viewers. She took to TikTok last week to own up to her mistake. Lana shared a clip that showed her delivering a seemingly innocuous report about school holiday activities in Melbourne. The segment quickly derailed when Lana clearly forgot her script. It seems her ad-libbing abilities may need some work, with the reporter uttering a string of unintelligible filler words. 'We will have a full list of all the possible school holiday activities and...' she said, before pausing briefly in an attempt to remember her lines. 'Dib-a-dib-a-dib-a-dib-a-doo' was all Lana could muster before finally getting back on track. The segment then cut back to presenter Brett McLeod in the studio, who appeared at a loss to explain Lana's bizarre gaffe. 'Well, there you go!' he said. Seeing the funny side of her error, Lana captioned her clip with a self-effacing remark: 'I wish I could say this was the first time my real personality went to air.' 'I promise I'm normally a serious, professional journalist,' she added. Lana's followers also saw the funny side, with many flooding the comments to praise her for the hilarious moment. It's not the first time the reporter has experienced an on-air slip-up. Back in 2020, Lana was forced to apologise after accidentally dropping an F-bomb during a report on the coronavirus pandemic.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Pregnant Vick Hope displays her baby bump in a colourful bikini while holidaying with husband Calvin Harris at their sprawling 138-acre Ibiza farm
Vick Hope showed off her blossoming baby bump while holidaying with her husband Calvin Harris in Ibiza on Wednesday. After leaving her BBC Radio 1 show on maternity leave a couple of months ago, the radio presenter, 35, and her DJ spouse, 41, are preparing to welcome their first child. In the meantime they're spending some time away at their 138-acre farm called Terra Masia, with Vick sharing snaps from the sun-soaked getaway to her Instagram. Captioning the slew 'june bloom', the TV personality looked every inch the glowing mother-to-be as she gazed down at her bump while sporting a bikini top. She also posed for a photo on the beach, cracking a smile for the camera after slipping into a white summer dress. The compilation also revealed that the couple were joined by pals on the Spanish island, with Vick cradling her bump in one photo while stood arm-in-arm with some friends. The radio presenter, 35, announced she was pregnant with her DJ husband's child during an appearance on her BBC Breakfast show in May (pictured March 2025) Vick confirmed rumours that she was pregnant live on her BBC radio show in May, letting her listeners know that she would soon be leaving on maternity leave. During a conversation with co-host Jamie Laing, she revealed: 'I should probably also say this is my final week before I go on maternity leave.' Jamie told her: 'You're an amazing friend, an amazing person, and you're just going to be an amazing mum.' She replied: 'Oh, thank you.' A few weeks later while on stage at Radio 1's Big Weekend, Vick and Jamie curiously asked the thousands of supporters in the crowd for baby name suggestions. Addressing the audience, Jamie said: 'Vick is about to go on maternity leave, and she wants some help with some baby names, so if you can shout some names to me.' As the huge crowd began screaming out suggestions a giggling Vick replied: 'Ok, I got it.' Whenever Calvin and Vick's baby is born, they will likely be raised at the couple's sprawling Gloucestershire mansion. The Scottish-born DJ has reportedly transformed a sleepy village in the county into his own multi-million-pound countryside empire snapping up homes left, right and centre. The One Kiss hitmaker, worth an eye-watering £250million, is set to move into a stunning new five-bed mansion with his pregnant wife later this summer. Calvin is thought to have already bought two neighbouring homes and is eyeing up a third, bringing his total spend in the area to an estimated £15million. One local told The Sun: 'Building work there finally finished, for now, last week and we're expecting Calvin and Vick to move in at the end of the summer after his season playing at clubs in Ibiza has finished. From the road, the house looks amazing. 'No expense seems to have been spared. I am sure they will love living here as a family.' The move mirrors Ed Sheeran's infamous creation of 'Sheeranville' in Suffolk, with Calvin now following suit by transforming the sleepy village of just 700 people. Another resident said: 'Just like Ed Sheeran, he seems to want to buy up the properties that surround his incredible new house. 'We have had to put up with lots of building work going on, for what seems like years but what has annoyed locals most is that a lovely vineyard has gone.' Alongside the main mansion, originally bought in 2019 for £3.6million, which was flattened and rebuilt from scratch, it is thought Calvin also snapped up a six-bedroom property with a three-acre vineyard for £3.6 million, although he insisted the vines be ripped out. The plush pad, made from classic honey-coloured Cotswold stone, features five bedrooms, a swimming pool and tennis court. Other locals joked that the local pub could be next on his list - and suggested the chart-topper might even treat residents to a DJ set. Calvin, who once worked in a fish factory and stacked shelves at Safeway to buy his first decks, has since topped charts with 11 UK No1s and raked in millions from a Las Vegas residency. Ever since he sold his song catalogue in 2020 for a reported £76million and has invested heavily in property ever since. The new mansion features a series of large ground floor rooms including kitchen, dining room and TV snug. Already the owner of a £12million mansion in LA, a £7.5million London townhouse, and a 138-acre farm in Ibiza, Calvin appears to have found his UK base in the Cotswolds, alongside celebrity neighbours like the Beckhams, Kate Moss, and Jeremy Clarkson.
The Independent
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
MP accused of ‘hiding' for Commons statement says she was looking after her baby
An MP has hit back at Energy Secretary Ed Miliband for accusing her of 'going into hiding' when she missed a statement on climate change, telling MPs she was actually looking after her son. Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho said Mr Miliband should reconsider his remarks, claiming it is an attitude faced by many new mothers when they return to work. Mr Miliband had pointed out the Conservative shadow minister's absence on Monday as he gave a statement to the Commons on climate and nature. He said: 'The trouble is we're in a situation now where the shadow secretary of state goes into hiding when there's a statement about the climate crisis, because it's just too embarrassing to try and articulate the opposition's position.' This was followed by energy minister Kerry McCarthy, who also remarked on her prior absence during energy questions on Tuesday. Ms Coutinho had asked her why the Government is 'offshoring' British industries, and replacing them with dirtier imports with higher emissions. Ms McCarthy replied: 'Perhaps if (she) had been here yesterday, she'd have been able to engage with the Secretary of State about that then.' Ms Coutinho later told MPs she had been missing from the Commons as she was looking after her son Rafael. The MP for East Surrey has recently returned to the Commons from maternity leave. Maternity leave for ministers and paid opposition figures, normally shadow secretaries of state, was introduced by the Conservative government in 2021. It entitles them to six months of maternity leave. She upbraided Mr Miliband as she began her questions to him. She said: 'I will just briefly say that yesterday the Secretary of State said I was hiding, when I was in fact with my six-month old baby who I know he's aware of. 'So, on behalf of all young mums who face these kinds of comments from their first few weeks back to work, can I gently suggest that he reflects on his remarks?' Mr Miliband apologised, telling her: 'I completely respect her decision to be with her young baby, and there was no offence intended. I think it's very, very important that we understand the needs of new parents and indeed parents across the country.' Ms Coutinho went on to ask the Government why it is now paying £82 per megawatt hour for offshore wind, up from £72 last year. 'That's the price he's paid for offshore wind, and he's set to do the same this year. And that's before the extra cost for grid for wasted wind and backup which are going through the roof thanks to his policies,' she said. 'Yesterday he admitted to radical honesty, will he either admit that he can't add up or that his policies can't bring down bills?' Mr Miliband said: 'She is gambling on fossil fuels, the same thing she did which led us to the worst cost-of-living crisis in our country's history. ' Family finances wrecked, business finances wrecked and public finances wrecked. The only way to bring down bills for good is cheap, home-grown power that we can control. We have an energy security plan, they have an energy surrender plan.'
