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The ex-wife of former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has revealed her new look as she opens up about life as a single mother following her husband’s affair with his ex-staffer.

Natalie Abberfield ended her 24-year marriage to Mr Joyce after it was revealed he was expecting a child with his former media advisor Vikki Campion.

Since the end of her marriage, Ms Abberfield has worked hard to protect her four daughters she shares with Mr Joyce and has found a new passion in bodybuilding.

In an interview with SBS’s Insight, she reveals how she took up the sport as a way to “escape” the chaos in her post-divorce life.

“I had always wanted to enter a bodybuilding competition, but there was simply never the right time,” Ms Abberfield told the show on Tuesday.

“When you’re a mother with a young family, your priorities change, and the things that you once desired often go on the back burner.

“Then the time came. In 2019 my daughters had grown up and were away at university.

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

After the initial shock response from her daughters, Ms Abberfield worked hard to achieve her goals to take the stage in a bodybuilding competition.

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

“When they realised I was serious, they supported my training and dietary choices and would make sure that I stayed on track.

“My friends thought I was mad, but were also very supportive. They noticed a change in me. They saw I was happy.”

Ms Abberfield credits bodybuilding for her creating a new way of life for herself.

“Bodybuilding became my escape and my way of refocusing on my life,” she said.

“I suppose it gave me a purpose to get up in the morning. It also gave me a new lease on life.

“I was enjoying everything in my life again and was meeting new people.

“Not only did my body change, but so did my mind. I found that I was happy again, and I wasn’t feeling sad and overwhelmed anymore.

“It was an amazing journey, both physically and mentally.”

After the affair with Ms Campion first became public, then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull described Mr Joyce’s behaviour as a “a shocking error of judgment”.

“I think we know that the real issue is the terrible hurt and humiliation that Barnaby by his conduct, has visited on his wife, Natalie and their daughters and indeed, his new partner,” he said at the time.

But, despite Ms Abberfield said her goal at competing was never about obtaining a “revenge body” following her break-up.

“I didn’t see my bodybuilding as a tool to get a ‘revenge body’ like the media suggested,” she said.

“It allowed me to find my identity again. To become me, Natalie, the person I had been before I became a wife and mother.

“I know it sounds weird but bodybuilding gave me the strength and confidence to start a new life, and I know now that I can do this on my own.

“If people want to call it a revenge body, then go ahead.

“But I think it is such a narrow-minded view. To me, bodybuilding means that a strong body reflects a strong mind.

“The only revenge I see is that you become mentally stronger and you can take on whatever life throws at you.

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

Mr Joyce, 54, was stood down from his high-profile role as the Deputy Prime Minister and leader of The National Party in early 2018 after news of his affair broke.

But he was then re-elected in 2021, after a leadership spill ousted Michael McCormack from the role.

He has since lost the leadership when David Littleproud defeated him in 2022.

Mr Joyce shares two sons with Ms Campion.

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