“Some of you may know that I occasionally get affected by some panic attacks and actually that’s happening right now,” Byrne told viewers.
Australian meteorologist Nate Byrne suffered a panic attack live on-air while delivering the weather during his national breakfast news program earlier this week.
At around 6:30am local time, during his weather segment of ABC News Breakfast, he started to trial off and say that he needed to “stop for a second”.
“Some of you may know that I occasionally get affected by some panic attacks and actually that’s happening right now,” Byrne said, addressing the camera before throwing back to host Lisa Millar.
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Millar took the opportunity to talk about how transparent Byrne has been in the past about his mental health issues and directed viewers to an article Byrne wrote in 2022 about the first time he had a panic attack live on air.
“Sorry if I gave anybody a bit of a scare there,” Byrne said when he returned back on air after gathering himself, before discussing what happened and giving some education about panic attacks to those watching at home.
“Not really, because you’ve been very honest before about getting panic attacks on air, and it’s so great for people to know that it can happen to anyone,” Millar said, as Byrne thanked his coworkers for stepping in.
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“When I got to the wall, I realized 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 shared in an interview with 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,” Byrne said. “
“And the only thing I could think to fill with was, ‘Hey, I’m having a panic attack.'”
Viewers praised his candor, with comments like, “This is the BEST thing I’ve seen in ages! Making the work place a safe place for all – even on live tv!! What really made my heart happy was how Nate was able to pass over to Lisa and Lisa being smooth and supportive x BIG LOVE”
“This is handled beautifully by both parties. So calm, Nate and what a supportive co-worker. My own family aren’t even that patient with me. Love this!” wrote another.