Married at First Sight Australia star Lucinda Light says a recent trip to New Zealand was both "heart-opening and heartbreaking all at once" amid news of widespread media job losses.
The opening slide on her Instagram post on Friday showed her with AM hosts Melissa Chan-Green and Lloyd Burr during a recent interview.
The star of the 11th season of the reality show was in Aotearoa in March to publicise her appearance on the ThreeNow juggernaut. She arrived at a time when Warner Bros. Discovery ANZ had announced a proposal to shut down Newshub and other operations, resulting in the loss of around 300 jobs. That proposal was subsequently accepted.
"Recently I went to New Zealand to say gday to a bunch of legends on behalf of @mafs Australia. It was an unexpected trip - both heart opening & heart breaking all at once [sic]," she wrote on Instagram.
"Everywhere I went, so many beautiful people in media were losing their jobs. It was shocking to come to realise that it's the beginning of the end of the mass-media chapter we've all grown up with. Lots of these folks pictured are thriving, others scratching their heads going 'what next?'"
Light revealed in a Newshub interview at the time that she loved New Zealand, saying at the time: "I spent six months here about 10, 12 years ago hitchhiking - I know the country quite well. I spent time in Tākaka, I lived in Raglan and the Coromandel coast.
"It was a very illuminating and profoundly spiritual journey. I had a shaved head at the time. I was like, 'I'm off on a sabbatical, a journey into me', and I landed in New Zealand and couldn't get enough of that."
Light was a fan favourite in the last season of the Australian social experiment, having been paired up with Timothy Smith. However, despite their popularity as a couple, the pair went their separate ways before the end of the show.
Light ended her post by saying the New Zealand media was "so chill".
"To all the perplexed, and at a loss, you've got this! NZ media, you guys were an inspiration to me- so kind, so inclusive, so chill. I'm sending the whole country so much love, my thoughts have been with you since I left."
