Martha Kearney Biography
Martha Kearney is a journalist and broadcaster from the United Kingdom and Ireland. She was the main presenter of BBC Radio 4’s lunchtime news programme The World at One for 11 years before joining the early morning Today programme in April 2018.
How old is Martha Kearney? – Age
She is 63 years old as of 8 October 2020. She was born Martha Catherine Kearney in 1957 in Dublin, Ireland.
Who is Martha Kearney’s Mother? – Family
Kearney was born in Dublin and raised in an academic family; her father, historian Hugh Kearney, taught at Sussex and then Edinburgh universities.
Who is Martha Kearney Married to? – Husband
She is married to Chris Shaw. Her husband was an executive producer on the Academy Award-nominated short documentary Watani: My Homeland. In the run-up to the ceremony, Kearney discussed her “red carpet” preparations with Eddie Mair on Radio 4 PM.
Martha Kearney Salary
She earns an annual salary of £1m.
Martha Kearney Net Worth
She has an estimated net worth of $1 Million.
Where is Martha Kearney? – BBC Career
Kearney began her career as a phone operator on phone-in shows at the London commercial radio station LBC and Independent Radio News. She worked as a reporter on the AM programme before becoming a political correspondent, covering the United Kingdom general election in 1987. She began working as a reporter for Channel 4’s A Week in Politics in 1988. She joined the BBC’s political program On the Record in 1990.
Kearney began hosting BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour as a regular in 1998. She was appointed political editor of BBC Two’s Newsnight in 2000. She became more frequent in presenting Newsnight and its weekly consumer survey of entertainment and culture, Newsnight Review. In 2005, she was a candidate to succeed Andrew Marr as the BBC’s political editor, but she was defeated by Nick Robinson.
Kearney appeared in a spoof episode of the BBC comedy series Time Trumpet called “Honey, I Shrunk Martha Kearney,” in which Jeremy Paxman, in a fantasy version of Newsnight, interviewed her at one-third her normal size. Later in the episode, she appeared in a spoof report from Notting Hill. She and her father co-presented The Idea of a University, a Radio 4 series about the history of universities in the United Kingdom, in 2006. Kearney hosted her final Woman’s Hour on March 19, 2007, and her final Newsnight on March 23, 2007. On April 16, 2007, she took over as the main presenter of Radio 4’s lunchtime news program The World at One. From 2006 to 2014, she hosted Newsnight Review, which later became The Review Show.
In 1998, Kearney was nominated for a BAFTA award for her reporting on the Northern Ireland Peace Process. She was named TRIC radio presenter of the year in 2004, along with Jenni Murray, and she received a Sony bronze award for a program on child poverty. In 2006, The House magazine named her Political Commentator of the Year. In 2014, she received the Voice of the Listener & Viewer’s Best Individual Contribution to Radio award.
Kearney won her episode of the Great Comic Relief Bake Off in 2013, where she competed against Claudia Winkleman, Ed Byrne, and Helen Glover. Kearney took over as the main presenter of Today on Radio 4 in April 2018, replacing Sarah Montague. Other BBC work includes The Secret World of Lewis Carroll for BBC Two in 2015, Being The Brontes for BBC Two in 2016, The Great Butterfly Adventure for BBC Four in 2016, Books That Made Britain for BBC One in 2016, Great Irish Journeys for BBC Four in 2017, and MAKE! Craft Britain for BBC Four in 2017. She has also hosted Talking Books from the Hay Festival, where she interviewed Kazuo Ishiguro and Marlon James, among others.