Just weeks after Samantha Armytage opened up about her ex Richard Lavender, there is mounting speculation that the businessman is back on the dating scene.
Armytage, 49, made headlines in December 2024, after splitting from Lavender after just four years of marriage.
There are now reports that the horse breeder has been seen with a local identity, close to his home base near Bowral, 116 km from Sydney.
Lavender has set tongues wagging in the town after keeping company with glamorous real estate agent Eloise Haydon, reported Sunday Confidential over the weekend.
Confirming that he was a long-time acquaintance of the grandmother, Richard insisted that there was no romance.
‘Eloise and I are not dating. We are old friends of 30 years. She lives in Murrurundi and is moving to Queensland,’ he said and added, ‘I live in Berrima.’
Just weeks after Samantha Armytage opened up about her ex Richard Lavender, there is mounting speculation that the businessman is back on the dating scene. Armytage, 49, made headlines in December 2024, after splitting from Lavender after four years. Both pictured
Lavender has set tongues wagging in the town after keeping company with glamorous real estate agent Eloise Haydon (pictured)
According to the report, Hayden, who has a property business in Bowral, was close to Lavender’s first wife, Kate, and went to school with her late husband, Jim.
One local who spoke to Confidential said Richard’s ex-wife is not ‘happy’ about the rumoured romance and neither are members of his family.
‘It’s caused quite a stir,’ the local said.
Lavender shares two daughters with his first wife, Grace and Sasha.
Daily Mail has approached Armytage and Haydon for comment.
It comes after Armytage recently opened up about her headline-making split from Lavender.
The former Sunrise star, who is rumoured to be headed for a permanent spot on Nine’s Today, broke her silence over her breakup in an interview with Stellar Magazine last month.
The Channel Nine presenter said that she and Lavender had tried their best to make their marriage work before calling it a day.
Confirming that he was a long-time acquaintance of the grandmother, Lavender said there was no romance
‘What I’ll say for my marriage is we gave it a go. It didn’t work out, so we moved on. Last year was a big year. There was a lot of change and a lot of grief,’ Samantha began.
The Golden Bachelor host added it was not a spur-of-the-moment decision and both she and Richard were confident in their choice to part ways.
‘I don’t think anybody leaves a marriage without thinking it through quite deeply. You don’t just decide one day and leave the next,’ she said.
‘We’ve all got these thoughts and fears and happy moments we share.’
In December, the former couple announced their separation on the eve of their fourth wedding anniversary.
They had tied the knot on Lavender’s 40-hectare property in the picturesque Southern Highlands in NSW on New Year’s Eve in 2020.
The pair began dating in April 2019, and announced their engagement in June 2020 before tying the knot at his property in rural NSW six months later.
The television veteran became the face of Farmer Wants A Wife in 2023 after first appearing as a guest host alongside former presenter Natalie Gruzlewski.
In August 2024, she shocked fans by announcing she was quitting Channel Seven after 21 years.
Armytage is now rumoured to be dating in ‘secret’ after squashing rumours that she was seeing Golden Bachelor star Barry ‘Bear’ Myrden.
