Sunrise host 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 she was convicted in 2003 of the murder of three of her children and the manslaughter of a fourth between 1989 and 1999.

An inquiry earlier this year heard credible evidence that the four children may have died of natural causes and concluded there was ‘reasonable doubt’ about Folbigg’s guilt of the convictions.

Four months after she was pardoned by NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley and released from prison, Ms Folbigg will break her silence in a bombshell interview that will air on Sunday night.

Ms Folbigg has always maintained her innocence that she didn’t kill or harm babies Patrick, Sarah, Laura and Caleb, who each died suddenly before they reached their second birthday.

Barr grilled Ms Folbigg with every difficult question imagined on the case that has both fascinated and divided Australia.

But she said it was up to viewers to make up their own minds when co-host Matt Shirvington asked whether she believed Ms Folbigg was innocent and if her interview shifted her view.

‘We know you often get asked has it changed your opinion of the case, of her, of whether or not she did it?’

Barr replied: ‘That’s not my job. My job is to go and ask the questions and to 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 view. 

‘And that’s Australia will get to decide on Sunday night.’

Ms Folbigg has since returned to her quiet, secluded life well away from the public eye.

‘She has talked to us, but she’s not going to 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 difficult questions. And she was determined to answer them.

‘It was really long, long interviews we did with her. And she said that will be it.’

‘She will not be living her life in the spotlight. She’s going to go away and have a very quiet life.’

Barr admitted she was nothing like the woman she expected to meet.

Nat Barr (right) spent a weekend getting to know Kathleen Folbigg (left) just days after she was released from prison

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 jail getting to know each other before the cameras even started rolling.

‘I walked in, and I kept thinking what would I be like if I had just spent 20 years in prison for a crime I say I didn’t commit,’ she recalled.

‘I thought she would be bitter and twisted. She was nothing like I thought she would be. She was determined and articulate and really, really normal. And nice.’

Seven reportedly spent $400,000 securing the interview with Folbigg.

Barr and the Seven Spotlight crew travelled to northern NSW in June, days after Folbigg was released.

‘She was like someone I’d grown up with,’ Barr recalled

‘She was a similar age. She had grown up in a regional area, kind of like I had. She was like someone you would hang out with.

‘And she was just a really normal Aussie woman. She wasn’t bitter and twisted.

‘She said she’s buried a lot of the emotion. She hasn’t grieved.’

Barr also interviewed Lindy Chamberlain, another Aussie mum who was convicted and then pardoned of killing her own baby daughter Azaria in 1980.

‘There is nothing more horrendous than being accused of killing your own child,’ Ms Chamberlain said.

Kathleen Folbigg is pictured enjoying her first day of freedom after she was released from prison in June

Kathleen Folbigg is pictured enjoying her first day of freedom after she was released from prison in June

Folbigg was convicted of the murder of her daughter Sarah (pictured)

Folbigg was also convicted of the murder of her daughter Laura (pictured)

She was convicted of the murders of 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

KATHLEEN FOLBIGG TIMELINE

June 14, 1967 – Kathleen Folbigg is born.

January 8, 1969 – Folbigg’s father, Thomas John Britton, murdered her mother by stabbing her 24 times. Folbigg was made a ward of the state and place into foster care.

1982 – Folbigg left school at the age of 18.

1987 – Folbigg married Craig Folbigg.

February 1, 1989 – Caleb Folbigg is born.

February 20, 1989 – Folbigg put Caleb to sleep in a room next to her bedroom. She later found him dead in his bed.

June 3, 1990 – Patrick Folbigg is born.

October 18, 1990 – Kathleen Folbigg put Patrick to bed before Craig woke to sounds of his wife screaming. Patrick was taken to hospital and diagnosed with epliepsy and blindness. 

February 18, 1991 – Folbigg called her husband at work to tell him Patrick had died, saying: ‘It’s happened again!’

October 14, 1992 – Sarah Folbigg is born.

August 29, 1993 – Sarah died.

1996 – The Folbiggs move from Maitland, New South Wales to Singleton in the Hunter Region.

August 7, 1997 – Laura Folbigg was born.

February 27, 1999 – Laura died. 

May 21, 2003 – Kathleen Folbigg was found guilty of murder and manslaughter and later sentenced to 40 years in prison. 

February 17, 2005 – Court reduces her sentence to 30 years with a non-parole period of 25 years.

August 22, 2018 – NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman announced there would be an inquiry into Folbigg’s convictions.

April 29, 2019 – The inquiry begins in Lidcombe, Sydney. 

June 2023: Kathleen Folbigg is pardoned and released from prison 

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