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Australian weather forecaster Nate Byrne, who was forced to stop broadcasting live after suffering a panic attack, has explained what happened.
Byrne was presenting the weather forecast on ABC News Breakfast at about 6.30am on Tuesday when he suddenly stopped and said: “I need to pause for a moment.”
“Some of you may know that I suffer from panic attacks from time to time, and in fact, I’m having one right now,” he said, before asking co-host Lisa Miller to stay on air.
As Byrne recovered, the camera moved away from him.
He came back a short time later and apologized.
Another presenter, Michael Rowland, joked that he’d been worried about having to present the weather in his colleague’s shoes, before sharing a video of the incident and assuring viewers that Byrne was safe.
“When I got to the wall I realised I was just a little bit out of breath and I knew that particular position in front of the wall would trigger a panic attack and that’s when it started,” Byrne told the BBC.
“It’s a physiological response. Your body starts tingling, you start sweating. Your whole body is screaming at you: ‘Run, go, get out.'”
“I knew I needed to call out the presenter and out of the corner of my eye I saw them doing something in the studio. I didn’t have a clean shot. I panicked and had to fill it in somehow.”
“And the only thing I could come up with was, ‘Dude, I’m having a panic attack.’
Miller took over from Byrne, discussing an article he wrote in 2022 about his first panic attack and how it changed the way he thought about mental health.
“As I stood under the studio lights talking to people sipping their morning coffee and scrubbing the sleep out of their eyes, my heart was pounding, I was out of breath, sweat was pouring from my pores and my brain was screaming at me to RUN!” he wrote.
“It’s great that he’s been so open and transparent about it,” Miller said.
Byrne says the response to his work has been entirely positive.
“After I first spoke about it publicly, a lot of people came up to me and said they didn’t realize they were having panic attacks. They didn’t realize other people were having panic attacks. Panic attacks happen and there are things we can do,” he said.
“If you realize you’re having panic attacks or have an anxiety disorder, it’s best to see a doctor. Talking to someone is probably the best thing to do.”
Social media users expressed their gratitude for the way everyone at the studio handled the incident.
“Good job Nate and team for handling this. We are all human and many of us have been through similar situations,” one commenter wrote on Instagram.
“This is amazing. Not a panic attack. Well done Nate and team,” wrote musician Paul Dempsey.
