EXCLUSIVE: Standing in the middle of a dairy farm in Ireland’s County Tipperary, Tony Armstrong grasped how easily history could have sent his family in a very different direction. Looking at the green fields of his mother’s ancestors, he told himself: “If it wasn’t for my great grandfather coming out [to Australia], I would have been a pretty translucent Irish fella.”
Jokes aside, the trip – taken for an upcoming episode of the documentary series Shaun Micallef’s Origin Odyssey – became a deeply moving and transformative experience as Armstrong noted the striking parallels between First Nations people in Australia and his Irish forebears, who saw their land and language colonised.
A particular source of pride was when a local expert traced his family’s roots and discovered an ancestor had played a key role in campaigning for Irish land rights.
“When the historian went through almost a list of things that I’d kind of followed in the footsteps of without knowing, it was really surreal, and made me so proud,” Armstrong tells Stellar.
“It was almost overwhelming, but also affirming. That was a huge step towards maybe understanding myself a bit better.”
Raised as an only child by a single mother, Armstrong recalls the “lost puppy effect” of growing up feeling as if something was missing from his life.
Presented with a room full of excited Irish relatives, he said he was uncharacteristically bashful.
“It was like a theme park of colours in the best way. You’d lift up a chair and there’s more family underneath it.”
That joyful mayhem followed a far less noisy and public reunion two years earlier, when Armstrong met his father for the first time.
“I don’t think you ever get what you expect, but it was good,” he adds.
“That was a really important moment in my life.”
‘I NEED TO HAVE THE BIG FAILURE’
Looking back, Armstrong says his identity crises following the end of his AFL career – he
was delisted in 2015, while in his mid-20s – gave him the courage to try new things and not put so much stock in what others thought.
“I needed to have the big failure because if I hadn’t, I would have remained scared,” he reflects now.
“I used to be really fearful of making a mistake. I didn’t trust myself.”
Today, Armstrong says that he’s “in a mental state where I can let it go and just trust that as long as I’ve done the best I can, that’s enough”.
The former AFL player’s six-season stint in the game gave him an insight into the challenges of professional sport culture, some of which he examined in his 2025 ABC docuseries End Game With Tony Armstrong.
Following the league’s recent off-field incidents that triggered police investigations, Armstrong says there’s still a long way to go in addressing toxic masculinity in sport.
“I don’t think men are where they maybe think they are, and they are definitely not where they want – or should want – to be,” he notes, adding that the pile-on culture of attacking people for speaking up doesn’t allow for thoughtful discussion.
“It’s really hard to get a grasp on if anything is improving, or if we’re going backwards. “Society is getting so [polarised]…” he continues.
“It feels like no-one can have a difference of opinion when they talk to each other. Sometimes things are just plain right and wrong.
“But so much more of it is in the grey. If we can’t respectfully talk to each other in the grey, we’re all cooked, I reckon.”
At the start of the year, reports suggested that Armstrong had split from his girlfriend Rona Glynn-McDonald, an activist and DJ with whom he appeared on the cover of Stellar in July 2024.
While neither has publicly confirmed or denied the rumours, Armstrong offers this response when asked how a hectic work schedule and public profile can allow space for a partner: “Relationships are a challenge for everyone, right?
“You go into all relationships – platonic, not platonic – with the best intentions, hope for the best, and then you add in travel and TV expectation, all that kind of stuff … and it’s pretty easy to let that stress get to you.
“But I think relationships in general are hard, and it doesn’t matter what you [do].”
Seeing Bidjara and Maori actor Deborah Mailman become the first person of First Nations descent inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame last month was momentous, Armstrong says. “It’s awesome that it’s Deb, and I’m stoked because she not only deserves to be that person but will be that person with grace and humility.”
At the same time, he says the accolade came too late.
“A lot of the time, change and shifts in power – or shifts in people who have had power or groups who’ve had it for a long time need to give up some of what they’ve got.
“And that’s always hard.”
‘A LONG TIME SINCE WE SPOKE’
A two-time Logie winner, Armstrong joined Stellar on the eve of the 2023 ceremony for a photo recreating John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s famous “bed-in” with Karl Stefanovic, as the TV presenters spoke about their fledgling bromance.
Asked where their friendship is now, Armstrong says diplomatically: “All I will say is it’s been a long time since we spoke.”
Armstrong, who gave this interview before Tom Steinfort was named as Stefanovic’s replacement on the Today show last week, was also never interested in being on the shortlist of candidates to take the role to begin with: “Never say never, but it’s just so not on my radar at all.”
After four years on ABC News Breakfast, Armstrong has a healthy respect for anyone who sets the alarm clock for 4am, adding with a laugh, “Brekkie hours are not for the faint-hearted … the phase I’m in, I don’t think that would be a good match.”
When Armstrong left the ABC in 2024, many speculated he was heading to a commercial TV role. Instead, he’s carved out his own niche with a slate of travel shows, specials, scripted roles and sports commentary.
“One of the big reasons I left was the tether to the breakfast desk, and I felt if I went into a commercial network – if they would have had me – I would have gone from one side of a fence to the other side of the fence in the same paddock,” he explains.
Armstrong is happy with his choices, particularly about stepping back from the breakneck pace he was going at a few years back.
“I needed to slow down because I was going absolutely nuts work-wise.
“It’s been nice to go at a more leisurely pace for a while. Now I’m getting ready to crank back up.”
Tony Armstrong’s episode of Shaun Micallef’s Origin Odyssey will air at 7.30pm on Tuesday on SBS and stream on SBS On Demand. Read the full interview with Tony Armstrong in a new issue of Stellar, out on Sunday.
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