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Australian weather presenter Nate Byrne, who had to halt a broadcast after suffering a panic attack live on air, has described what happened.
Byrne was presenting his weather forecast on ABC News Breakfast at around 6:30am on Tuesday when he suddenly broke off and said he needed to “stop for a second”.
“Some of you may know that I occasionally get affected by panic attacks and actually that is happening right now,” he said, requesting co-host Lisa Millar to continue the broadcast.
The camera panned away from Byrne as he recovered.
He came back after a while and apologised.
Another co-host, Michael Rowland, jokingly responded that he got nervous wondering if he would have to step into his colleague’s shoes and present the weather. He later shared a video of the incident, telling the audience that Byrne was alright.
“When I got to the wall, I realised I was just ever so slightly out of breath. And I know that specific position in front of the wall is a trigger for me for panic attacks. And it started, it triggered one,” Byrne told the BBC.
“It’s a physiological response. My body starts tingling, I start sweating. Just everything in my body is screaming, ‘Run, go, get out.’
“I knew I needed to throw back to my hosts and I could see out of the corner of my eye they were doing a move in the studio. There wasn’t a clean shot. I sort of had to fill while having a panic attack.
“And the only thing I could think to fill with was, ‘Hey, I’m having a panic attack.’”
Millar took over from Byrne and brought up an article he had written in 2022 about his first panic attack and how it changed his views on mental health.
“As I stood there under the studio lights, talking to people having their morning coffee and wiping sleep from their eyes, my heart was racing, I was gasping for breath and sweat was pouring out of every pore as my brain screamed ‘RUN!’” he had written.
Millar said it was “fantastic that he has been so open and transparent about it”.
The response to his piece, Byrne said, was entirely positive.
“A lot of people have come after I first spoke about it publicly and said to me that they didn’t know that what they were having was a panic attack. They did not know that other people had panic attacks. It happens and there are things we can do,” he said.
“The thing is, if you identify you're having a panic attack or that you've got an anxiety problem, it's best to go see a doctor. Talking to someone is probably the best thing you can do.”
Social media users responded with appreciation for the way everyone in the studio handled the incident.
“Well done to Nate and the team for navigating that so well. We are all human and many of us have been in similar situations,” one commenter said on Instagram.
“This is awesome. Panic attacks are not. Well done Nate and the whole team,” musician Paul Dempsey wrote.
