VIEW FROM THE TOP
‘They’re just boobs! Half the population has them’
It’s a question man has grappled with since the dawn of time: if someone said something mean about you, would you want to know? Given this option semi-regularly by the person delivering her pre-opened work mail (“It’s for security reasons – but yes, it makes me feel like the Queen!” she laughs), an innately curious Hilary Barry typically errs on the side of ‘Go on then, hand the letter over.’
This is how Hilary first encountered Barbara. Or more specifically, Barbara’s indignation at being “assailed” one too many times by the Seven Sharp co-host’s cleavage-exposing low-cut tops. Those are Barbara’s words, by the way, not that they aren’t factually correct. Hilary does wear low-cut tops. Hilary does show her cleavage. But Hilary doesn’t see why she shouldn’t.
“They’re just boobs!” she declared to the nation last May when, hours after first receiving the offending-slash-offended correspondence, her co-host Jeremy Wells read it live on air. “Half the population has them. Barbara has them!”
Nine months later, Hilary and I are reliving the moment in a meeting room at TVNZ, a few floors down
