Sunrise presenter Nat Barr has weighed in on the question every Australian wants to know about Kathleen Folbigg ahead of their highly anticipated one-on-one interview.
Ms Folbigg, 55, spent 20 years behind bars after being convicted in 2003 of murdering three of her children and murdering a fourth between 1989 and 1999.
An inquest earlier this year heard credible evidence that the four children could have died of natural causes and concluded there was ‘reasonable doubt’ about Folbigg’s guilt over the sentences.
Four months after being pardoned by NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley and released from prison, Ms Folbigg will break her silence in a bombshell interview to be aired on Sunday night.
Ms Folbigg has always maintained her innocence of not killing or harming babies Patrick, Sarah, Laura and Caleb, who died suddenly before their second birthday.
Barr has grilled Ms Folbigg with every imaginable tough question on the case that has captivated and divided Australia.
But she said it was up to viewers to make up their own minds when co-host Matt Shirvington asked if she believed Ms Folbigg was innocent and if her interview changed her view.
“We know you’re often asked if your opinion has changed about the case, about her, whether she did it or not?”
Barr replied: ‘That’s none of my business. My job is to go ask questions and report,’
“I’ve been getting questions all week. “What do you think? I will never believe that woman. Or I can’t believe that we have to compensate that woman millions of dollars because of what she went through.” Everyone will have their own point of view.
“And that’s what Australia will decide on Sunday night.”
Barr recalled her shock at how normal she was and nothing like the woman she had expected to meet.
Ms Folbigg has since returned to her quiet, secluded life far from the public eye.
“She’s talked to us, but she won’t make a habit of talking to anyone,” Barr said.
“She was determined to get a story out. She knew we had to ask her every question, all the hard questions. And she was determined to answer them.
“It was really long, long interviews that we did with him. And she said that it will be.
“She will not live her life in the limelight. She will go away and have a very quiet life.’
Barr admitted that she was nothing like the woman he expected to meet.
Nat Barr (right) spent a weekend getting to know Kathleen Folbigg (left) just days after she was released from prison
The pair spent a weekend shortly after Ms Folbigg’s release from prison getting to know each other before the cameras started rolling.
“I walked in and kept thinking about how I would be if I had spent 20 years in prison for a crime I say I didn’t commit,” she recalled.
“I thought she was going to be bitter and twisted. She was nothing like I thought she would be. She was poised and articulate and really, really normal. And beautiful.’
The seven reportedly spent $400,000 to secure the interview with Folbigg.
Barr and the Seven Spotlight crew traveled to northern NSW in June, days after Folbigg was released.
“She was like someone I grew up with,” Barr recalled
‘She was a similar age. She had grown up in a regional area, kind of like me. She was like someone you would hang out with.
And she was just a really normal Australian woman. She wasn’t bitter and twisted.’
“She said she buried a lot of emotions. She is not sad.
Barr also interviewed Lindy Chamberlain, another Australian mother who was convicted and later pardoned for murdering her young daughter Azaria in 1980.
“There is nothing more horrible than being accused of murdering your own child,” said Mrs Chamberlain.
Kathleen Folbigg was pictured enjoying her first day of freedom after being released from prison in June
She was convicted of murdering Sarah (left) and Laura (pictured right) along with her two sons before scientists lobbied for Folbigg to be pardoned because the two girls’ deaths could be explained by genetics.
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Sunrise host Nat Barr addresses the tough question many Aussies are asking about Katleen Folbigg
