Inside Edwina Bartholomew’s new chapter as star tells of plan to move
The shock came when Edwina Bartholomew was 41. Having undergone a blood test to get an idea of her general health, the Sunrise star was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), a blood and bone marrow cancer.
It meant the “go, go, go” approach to life that the mum-of-two had embraced for her entire working career had to “shift”.
“This has definitely been a huge takeaway for me that life can’t continue like that,” the star told Stellar in a candid 2024 interview.
“I’ve had to say to work, ‘I can’t now go back to work five days a week at 3am in the morning. It’s not something that I can do’.”
Indeed, a year and a half on from the day she shocked viewers by announcing her diagnosis live on Sunrise, it’s clear a permanent change has been made.
The star now works more flexibly – from the office and at home, with the support of her employers Channel 7 – and with traces of leukaemia in her body “almost undetectable” thanks to specialist help and daily medication, she’s embracing her “second lease on life”.
“A friend of mine described it as like an awful dose of mortality,” Edwina told Australian Women’s Weekly in an April 2025 interview.
“You’ve realised that, in a second, you could lose it all. I’m so conscious that I could have gone into the doctor’s office that day, and they could have said anything. They could have said, ‘You’ve got two weeks to live’, or ‘Go sort out your affairs’, or ‘This is the end’. But they didn’t.”
Central to Edwina’s new chapter is a project very close to her heart – the renovation of a guest house in Carcoar, NSW.
Edwina and her husband Neil Varcoe, a former digital media exec, fell in love with the picture-perfect village in the NSW Central West back in November 2023 when visiting with their children Molly, six, and Tommy, three.
Seeing the local inn was for sale, and realising its potential, they sent the listing to some “entrepreneurial friends” for consideration.
“It wasn’t until we found ourselves driving east, back in Sydney, along the heaving M4 with two sleeping kids in the car, that we considered it could be us,” Edwina shared in a column for Country Style in January 2026
“Could we leave Sydney? Could we move to the country? Could we run a pub? The answer was no.
“We couldn’t leave Sydney. Yet. We couldn’t move to the country. Yet. We couldn’t run a pub. Ever. But the idea stuck.”
When the couple returned to Carcoar a few months later and saw that another property – an 1880s guest house – was for sale, they decided to sell their Sydney home, buy it and transform it into a unique hotel.
And there a new chapter began – a change that, eventually, will see the entire family relocate from the city to the country.
For now, however, Edwina and Neil live different lives.
“My husband and I separated, geographically. He moved to Carcoar with the dog. I stayed in the city with the kids. If we were going to undertake this massive renovation, we would have to divide and conquer,” Edwina told Country Style.
“We are now halfway through the building process. We have learnt a lot about heritage restrictions, septic systems, power poles and small-town politics. We have also fallen even more in love with the town we will all eventually call home.”
“Our mission is to build a hotel that feels like home,” Edwina told Country Style. And central to that is a gorgeous kitchen with marble benchtops and a restored Metters oven from the early 1900s.
“Our chef will serve breakfast here each morning until a very civilised time. It’s where the daily cake will sit, waiting for a complimentary cup of tea, and where the soup will simmer in the winter on the cast-iron stove,” Edwina explained.
And while Edwina and Neil’s restoration adventure continues, it’s clear the Sunrise star is adding even more strings to her bow beyond TV.
On February 23, Edwina revealed she had taken up an old passion once more: photography.
“It’s been 15 years since I have picked up a proper camera. How I have missed it,” the star shared in an Instagram post, revealing she had attended a photography course in Tasmania run by luxury travel and lifestyle photographer Lean Timms.
“Two days. Incredible food. Lovely, lovely people,” Edwina wrote.
And with Saltash Farm slated to open in 2026, it seems the star will have even more to learn in the near future.
“Do we know anything about running a hotel?” Edwina asks Neil in a video shared to Instagram to promote their venture. “No, we don’t,” Neil responds.
Edwina sums it up perfectly with a grin: “We know absolutely nothing.”
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