Sunrise presenter Natalie Barr confronted Barnaby Joyce about giving up alcohol after footage of him lying on a footpath after having too much to drink went viral.
It comes after the Daily Mail Australia revealed a video of Mr Joyce, 57, lying on the footpath on Lonsdale Street in the Canberra suburb of Braddon on a Wednesday night in February at 11:26pm.
On Monday, Barr asked Joyce about his resolve not to drink alcohol again since that infamous night.
‘I literally woke up the next morning and said, that’ll do it. “I’ve given up tobacco and I’ve given up alcohol,” Joyce said.
‘It was my choice, no one else’s. I thought it was a disgrace and I can’t do it again.’
Joyce said he had lost 15kg and felt mentally “sharper” than ever since giving up alcohol, but admitted life had been “boring” since he stopped drinking.
‘Life is boring, having to talk to people at functions. You know the crap they talk about? “It’s amazing,” Joyce said.
Sunrise co-host Natalie Barr (left) quizzed Barnaby Joyce (right) on his decision to give up alcohol and asked if he would drink again after admitting life was “boring” without it.
‘If you want to have a drink, it’s absolutely and completely your choice.
‘I have taken a decision. Whether it’s for life or as long as it lasts, I don’t know. I didn’t worry, I just woke up and stopped.
Joyce said last week from his office in Parliament that he and Campion no longer have alcohol in the house and he hasn’t touched a drop since that infamous night.
“I disgraced myself and woke up the next morning and said ‘that’s enough’, so I didn’t have another drink.”
His fellow National Party MPs said they had noticed a difference in his demeanour since he returned to parliament after Coalition leaders David Littleproud and Peter Dutton ordered him to take a break.
He claimed that during his spare time he “practiced fencing,” did manual farm work, lost 15kg and was “sharper” than ever.
Mr Joyce also revealed that someone who closely inspected the footage told him his phone was upside down and Campion probably did not hear what he was saying.
In the video, Joyce can be seen lying on the pavement with his legs up and his jacket open.
He was wearing the same blue and white tie he had worn during Question Time in Parliament earlier that day.
Campion said her husband wasn’t referring to her when he called someone “f***ing dead” during the phone call.
“I think he was calling himself that, he likes to self-flagellate,” he said.
Joyce said he decided to stop drinking alcohol after he was filmed rolling on the floor muttering profanities into his phone on a Wednesday night in February (pictured).
At the time, Joyce described the scene as “very embarrassing” in a statement to Daily Mail Australia.
“I was walking back to my accommodation after Parliament rose at 10pm,” he said.
‘While talking on the phone I sat on the edge of a flower pot, fell over, continued talking on the phone and very animatedly referred to myself for having fallen over.
“I got up and walked home.”
The couple also sold their Braddon flat belonging to Ms Campion this year and Mr Joyce sold his family home in Tamworth for $1.1 million.
The couple married in a bushbash-style wedding at their property in Woolbrook, in the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales, in November 2023.
