Radio presenter Stacey Lee shows us that a little pizzazz and a lot of colour go a long way for a fun afternoon with friends.

Words Zoe Rice | Photographs Andre Castellucci

Stacey Lee warmly greets SALIFE at the front door – but not before her excitable toy cavoodle Murray gets to us first.

Stacey and Murray lead us through their very colourful home, where Stacey’s husband Ben Millar has his tongs in hand at the barbecue, getting prepped for a special lunch today. Set up in the bright and colourful kitchen, Poppy Elia from catering company Poppy’s Pantry Adelaide is working away, helping out with the Greek-inspired menu.

Stacey and Ben are hosting a lunch with some of the people who have made Stacey’s past 11 years living in Adelaide all the better. The journalist made the move from Sydney a little over a decade ago, where she was working at Sky News. Stacey had started out doing work experience with the media company and after her time was up, she kept turning up.

“Eventually, someone said, ‘You’re not meant to be here, can you please go home’,” Stacey says. “I felt as if I’d been fired from a job that I wasn’t even getting paid for; I was devastated.”

But the next day, she got a call asking if she’d like to come back – this time with a salary. “My work motto has always been, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.”

Eventually, Stacey was offered a job in the newly-opened Adelaide Sky News bureau and never having visited the city, she moved here a week later. She became a one-woman news-reporting operation – the journalist, camera operator, lighting crew, live link operator and driver.

“I’d be filming a press conference and then I’d turn the camera around to do a live link.”

It was a whirlwind when she started and she only expected it to last a couple of years before moving on to the next place, but Adelaide seemed to stick and in 2015, she met Ben through mutual friends at the Adelaide Fringe.

“It’s such a special time of year for us – every year we celebrate our anniversary during Fringe because we got married in 2021 on the same date we met,” she muses.

Career-wise, Stacey has never sat still for long. After cementing her spot in Sky News’ Adelaide bureau, she moved to Channel Seven as a police reporter, then back to Sky to host her own news and opinion show, over to the ABC as a political reporter, then on the ABC’s breakfast radio show, and finally, over to FIVEAA, where she has been hosting the afternoon show since January.

“I don’t think any of the career moves I’ve made have necessarily been a direct step up and a lot of people have questioned them,” she says.

There were questions about her return to Sky. Then more about leaving her own show on Sky to move to a public broadcaster. Then yet more about leaving a breakfast show for an afternoon slot.

“I don’t like the feeling of being comfortable – I actually like that uncomfortable feeling. My career moves have sometimes looked like a step to the side, but there’s always a bigger picture in my head. So far, it’s paid off!”

Moving into radio has been one of Stacey’s biggest learning curves. She was so used to hard news, but all of a sudden, she had to drop her guard and just be herself. She soon found out this meant the public was able to have their opinion on her opinions, with one example standing out in her mind.

“I can’t remember what we were talking about that morning, but whatever I said annoyed a lot of people and I got a couple of text messages and they come in live so you see them unfiltered. Someone said, ‘Shut up you little brat, who do you think you are?’ Another one commented, ‘What’s wrong with her, is it that time of the month?’

“I’m just here trying to do a job – you don’t have to agree with what I think on the matter, but maybe it’s a sign of where we are in the world and the social media keyboard confidence. I left the studio during the news to cry. I had my cry and then you just have to get on with the job.

“I think for me, it was about learning that either I can’t read unfiltered text messages coming in live, or I have to take it with a grain of salt. I do think women in the media have to deal with it a lot more than men in the media have to.

“When it comes to men, I’m sure people disagree with them and they can get disrespectful, but with women, it tends to get more personal.”

When Stacey made the decision to leave the ABC for FIVEAA at the end of last year, she found herself in the headlines.

“There were a few weekends in a row where I’d read news reports about my decision and get really upset about what was being said but I just had to remind myself that I was doing the right thing for my family and my career and try to block out the noise.”

Despite the attention, Stacey has settled into her new afternoon spot and says she loves that she can set her own agenda, implementing topics that are meaningful to her, including a half hour arts chat once a week.

That flair of creativity runs right through to Stacey and Ben’s Myrtle Bank home, where the pair have created a space full of colour bursts. It begins with a painting upon entry by First Nations artist Debra Nangala McDonald and continues through to the kitchen, where a feature pendant light from About Space in Melbourne has been customised in bold and pastel hues.

Ben and Stacey have added their own splashes of colour through a hobby they picked up during quiet nights through the Covid pandemic after they’d endured more than enough playing Scrabble and Monopoly.

“I thought we might try painting to pass the time during Covid,” Ben says. “A lot of the pieces don’t make it to the walls.”

Stacey says this hobby has outlived the lockdowns and become a regular therapeutic activity.

“At night, we used to come home, eat dinner, sit on the couch and sort of slob around,” she says. “Now, half of our dining table turns into a paint studio and the towels go down and the palettes come out.”

There’s strict criteria for the more successful pieces that end up on display – both Ben and Stacey have to love them.

Stacey says her husband is better on canvas than her, but she shines on porcelain and has included some of her decorative pieces on today’s tablescape, as well as coasters she’s painted fitting to the theme.

They’ve got a bit of Greek flair, pairing with the perfectly mismatched plates from In the Roundhouse with an evil eye and an ‘Opa!’ plate. Stacey says she knows what she loves when she sees it, but often needs help bringing that vision together, so she’s had a hand today from Katherine Elia from On the Table Events.

Olive leaves, lemons and figs create natural Mediterranean-inspired decor, while the menu keeps the theme going.

Ben’s tomahawk steak is a star of the table, and Stacey says they couldn’t put a lunch together without one of her favourite South Australian products – Olga’s Chevapchichis.

Poppy’s spread includes whipped feta, prawn saganaki, fried haloumi with fig jam and loaded lemon baked potatoes with feta. For dessert, it’s a personal touch with a pick-up from Lukoumades – The Greek Donut, which featured in the couple’s wedding as the dessert truck instead of cake.

As Stacey’s guests begin arriving, she notes this is probably the most dressed up any of them have been in her house – usually it’s track pants or pyjamas with some television and a relaxed menu of curry or burgers. There’s even an Oodie drawer in their living room to prove it. Not today though; everyone has come along looking their best.

Travis Moran and Ben have been friends for years and now Travis’s wife Ellie and Stacey have become close. Sam Okely and Stacey met when they were both working at Channel Seven and have stayed close. Sam, who now works in public relations at TGI Sport, has worked in publicity for events including LIV Golf and the AFL Gather Round.

Last to arrive is  Channel 10 weather presenter Tiff Warne who was new to Adelaide and without a job when she met Stacey, so Stacey introduced her to media circles.

“I’d moved from Sydney and didn’t have a job and Stace said, ‘I’ll network with you’,” Tiff says. “She didn’t know me from a bar of soap but she took me to the ballet and offered to introduce me around. She’s all about girls supporting girls in the media.”

Sam mirrors the sentiment: “She’s an amazing friend and very thoughtful and very intelligent,” Sam says. “Ben and Stace are ‘couple-goals’ – Ben’s so welcoming and always has a chat with the girls to find out the goss.”

As she sits on the same couch that she’s spent many evenings relaxing on, Ellie reflects on what she loves about Stacey.

“She can be really easy going and fun and light, but also incredibly thoughtful, determined and dedicated,” Ellie says.

 

This article first appeared in the August 2024 issue of SALIFE magazine.