Kay Burley has been a firm fixture at Sky since joining the company in 1988. (Image: Sky News)
has spent the last three decades reporting on Britain’s biggest stories for . During her reign, the veteran has covered and fronted the coverage for the death of and the birth of .
A self-styled “Wigan street fighter”, Kay, 63, was born in the Lancashire town to working-class parents, employed in a local cardboard factory. At the age of 17, she began working for the Wigan Evening Post and Chronicle and later took up positions at local radio and Tyne Tees Television.
Before being brought in as one of the core team to launch Sky News in 1989, Kay was married to fellow reporter Steve Burley. The duo tied the knot in 1980 when the broadcaster was just 19 years old.
Six years later, the pair divorced with Kay going on to marry her second husband Steve Kutner when she was 28. Steve – a former agent of retired professional footballer – and Kay welcomed their only son Alexander Kutner, 31, in 1993 before divorcing a year later.
Despite splitting from two husbands, in a 2011 interview with Kay claimed she’d “had two successful marriages”. Images of Alexander are rarely shared by his mother but in March 2022 she took to to promote his collector car market consultant business, Wolf Hub.
Kay’s ‘humble beginnings’ saw the Wigan-born broadcaster working her first general election in 1979. (Image: INSTAGRAM)
“Check out my son’s new business and maybe give him a follow? I maybe biased but its excellent,” she wrote at the time. (Sic)
A decade after splitting from her second husband, Kay embarked on a relationship with former political editor turned PR man, George Pascoe-Watson.
Their five-year came to a close in 2009, with the 58-year-old marrying former Willam Hague secretary Natalie Pascoe-Watson (neé Kirby) two years later.
In 2018, the Sky News anchorwoman when she was just 57.
Appearing on , Kay said: “My mum died when she was my age. My little boy was eight months old. It still makes me sad actually just to think about it.
“I remember her saying, ‘I’m going to die’ and I said, ‘I can’t live without you mum’, but she said I would have to and told me to look after my daddy.
“My grandmother had died when my mum was 18 and my aunt died shortly after my mother.”
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Kay and her ex-husband Steve Kutner share a single named Alexander. (Image: GETTY)
According to the , Kay undergoes various preventative methods due to her family history with the disease.
“I want to see my grandchildren grow up,” she once admitted. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to, but please God I will.
“My mother and my grandmother, my aunt, all died of breast cancer. I do everything I can to try to make sure I won’t. I have regular screenings. I have MRI scans, I have mammograms.”
Earlier this year, the presenter took to social media to announce her younger sister Jacqueline had been diagnosed with cancer.
“Jacqueline, who has been stoic in her determination to take on a disease that claimed both my mother and grandmother,” she wrote.
In an interview with , the broadcasting powerhouse elaborated further: “She’s my kid sister, she’s got three grandchildren under three and, to be honest, I wish I had it instead of her. I would rather it was me than her.”
Earlier this year, Kay delighted fans by revealing she’d taken time away from her breakfast show to up sticks to the countryside.
In May, the television icon took to social media
The picture depicted one of the high-ceiling rooms in her new abode which featured beautiful brown flooring, a glass chandelier and wooden shelves. She simply captioned the image: “New home”.
Tune into Kay Burley on the Sky News breakfast show every weekday from 7am until 10am.