Barnaby Joyce’s ex-wife Natalie on her new life and bodybuilding after bitter split

Natalie Joyce has opened up about her surprise move into the world of bodybuilding after her bitter confrontation with Nationals MP husband Barnaby Joyce.

Speaking to SBS’s Insight program five years after her high-profile split, Natalie revealed she shocked friends and family when she announced she planned to compete in bodybuilding competitions.

The mother-of-four had endured the agonizing end of her 24-year marriage in 2018 – a rift that was brutally played out publicly after her husband left her for his younger staffer Vikki Campion.

Barnaby and Vikki, who would go on to have two sons in quick succession after the end of his marriage to Natalie, now plan to wed in the coming months in a ceremony believed to be held in his hometown of Armidale in NSW.

As the wedding approaches, Natalie reveals that pumping iron was a major factor in her recovery from Barnaby’s devastating blindness and that it helped her “rediscover” herself.

“I always wanted to enter a bodybuilding competition, but there was simply never the right time,” Natalie told Insight.

“When you’re a mom with a young family, your priorities change, and the things you once craved often take a back seat.

‘Then it was time. In 2019, my daughters were grown and in college.

“My marriage had ended and I was consumed with this overwhelming sense of sadness and the burning question, ‘Well, now what? I’m not needed anymore.'”

But the 54-year-old mother of admitted that the news that she was preparing for a tilt in competitive bodybuilding was initially met with some skepticism in her inner circle.

However, the doubts soon gave way when they realized that the lifelong fitness fanatic was serious about having a real crack.

“When I told my daughters I was going to participate, they laughed and said, ‘Oh mom, you’re not doing that,'” she said.

“Once they realized I was serious, they supported my training and dietary choices and made sure I stayed on track.

“No alcohol for you, mommy!” My friends thought I was crazy, but were also very supportive. They noticed a change in me… they saw that I was happy.”

And it wasn’t just a major physical transformation that emerged. Natalie said hours in a Tamworth gym led to other big changes.

She started meeting new people and enjoying life again after the darkness of a messy, public divorce.

“Bodybuilding became my escape and my way of refocusing on my life,” she told the program.

“I suppose it gave me purpose to get up in the morning.”

It has also given me a second life.

‘I enjoyed everything in my life again and met new people.

‘Not only my body changed, but also my mind.

“I noticed that I was happy again, and I stopped feeling sad and overwhelmed.”

Natalie, however, stopped calling her new physique a “revenge body” — a term typically used to describe a fitness transformation following a breakup or divorce.

“If people want to call it a revenge body, go ahead. But I think it’s such a narrow view. To me, bodybuilding means that a strong body reflects a strong mind,” she said.

“The only revenge I see is getting mentally stronger and able to handle whatever life throws at you.

“Why would you want to waste precious time on a ‘vengeous body’ for someone else?”

Natalie has only given a handful of interviews since her ex-husband’s infidelity scandal went public five years ago and she is believed to be living a quiet life off the public radar in Tamworth.

Vikki and Barnaby, meanwhile, got engaged to Campion in 2022 and detailed the proposal at a restaurant in Coffs Harbor in her weekly opinion column published in The Sunday Telegraph.

“Great love doesn’t need a ring, but I love the way it feels,” Campion wrote.

“He pretended to drop his phone on the floor, jumped on both knees like he was praying, didn’t propose, and said, ‘Vikki, will you marry me?’ and I melted.’