Emily Maitlis Biography – Emily Maitlis Wiki
Emily Maitlis is a British journalist, documentary filmmaker, and former newsreader for the BBC. She was the lead anchor until the end of 2021 of Newsnight, the BBC Two news and current affairs programme. At first, she wanted to work as a director, prompted by her love for drama, but instead went into radio broadcasting. Before working in news, she was a documentary maker in Cambodia and China. She worked for the NBC network and was based in Hong Kong. She spent six years in Hong Kong with TVB News and NBC Asia, at first as a business reporter creating documentaries, and then as a host in Hong Kong covering the collapse of the tiger economies in 1997. She also covered the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong with Jon Snow for Channel 4. She then moved to Sky News in the UK as a business correspondent, and then to BBC London News when the programme was relaunched in 2001.
In 2005, Maitlis appeared as the question-master on the game show The National Lottery: Come And Have A Go. She was a regular presenter on BBC News Channel for a decade between 2006 and 2016, alongside Ben Brown and Jon Sopel. She also presented BBC Breakfast and from May 2006 until July 2007 presented STORYFix on BBC News, a light-hearted look at the week’s news set to upbeat music. In July 2007, she received an appointment to be a contributing editor to The Spectator magazine, an unpaid post. This had been approved by her immediate manager, the head of BBC Television News Peter Horrocks, but the decision was subsequently overturned by his superior, the BBC News director Helen Boaden.
In 2012, she presented the US 2012 election coverage on BBC One and the BBC News Channel alongside David Dimbleby, when incumbent US President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were fighting for the presidency of the US. In 2016, she presented a news discussion programme called This Week’s World on BBC Two, late afternoon on Saturdays. Maitlis was a main presenter of Newsnight on BBC Two, alongside Kirsty Wark and Emma Barnett. She first joined the programme as a relief presenter in 2006, working her way up to be the lead anchor of the programme after the departure of Evan Davis in 2018. After each show, before bed, she answered emails from viewers. In April 2019, she published Airhead: The Imperfect Art of Making News, a book describing how television news is produced.
In November 2019, she interviewed Prince Andrew, Duke of York, about his relationship with an American sex offender and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who died in August whilst awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. The interview was broadcast on the BBC’s Newsnight programme on November 16, 2019. Due in part to the disastrous fallout from Prince Andrew’s performance during this interview, he resigned from his royal duties. In February 2020, her interview with Prince Andrew won Interview of the Year and Scoop of the Year awards at the 2020 RTS Television Journalism Awards, and Maitlis is reportedly making a scripted drama with Blueprint Pictures of this interview.
In 2019, she was amongst the highest paid BBC news and current affairs staff, receiving a salary between £260,000-£264,999. In July 2020 campaign group Defund the BBC ran billboards highlighting Maitlis’ salary and that of Gary Lineker, with the heading “Are you still paying?” In 2020, she started hosting a BBC podcast, Americast, with Jon Sopel, the BBC’s North America editor. The podcasts originally focused on the 2020 election and contain analysis as well as an array of interviews from across the political scene. Americast received positive reviews and performed well becoming one of the UK’s most listened-to podcasts of any genre.
In a Newsnight discussion concerning Brexit on July 15, 2019, it was alleged by a viewer that Maitlis had been “sneering and bullying” columnist Rod Liddle. Maitlis had accused Liddle’s columns of containing “consistent casual racism week after week”, asking Liddle if he would describe himself as a racist. An investigation by the BBC Executive Complaints Unit upheld the complaint against her, agreeing that she had been “persistent and personal” in her criticism of Liddle, thus “leaving her open to the charge that she had failed to be even-handed” in the discussion between Brexit-supporting Liddle and his anti-Brexit opponent Tom Baldwin. Douglas Murray described the segment as “more of a drive-by shooting than an interview”.
On May 27, 2020, the BBC said that her introduction to Newsnight the night before, which discussed the allegations that the Prime Minister’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, had contravened lockdown restrictions, “did not meet our standards of due impartiality”. The BBC said in a statement: “The BBC must uphold the highest standards of due impartiality in its news output. She began the show by declaring that Mr Cummings had ‘broken the rules”. She stood aside as the host of Newsnight on that day after asking to take the night off. On September 3, 2020, a report by the BBC’s Editorial Complaints Unit also ruled against Maitlis in the matter, stating her’ comments “went beyond an attempt to set out the programme agenda” and that the “definitive and at times critical nature of the language” had “placed the presenter closer to one side of the debate” and thus “did not meet the required standards on accuracy or impartiality”.
In February 2021, Maitlis was criticised over lacking impartiality after sharing a tweet by Piers Morgan which condemned the government. Conservative Party politician Andrew Bridgen said the BBC journalist appeared to be ignoring impartiality guidelines.
In her August 2022 MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival, she reflected on the incident, saying that BBC editors were initially complementary. The following day, after a complaint from the Prime Minister’s office, the BBC apologised and removed the segment from its streaming service. In the lecture, she questioned the promptness with which the BBC apologised, apparently to placate the government.
On February 22, 2022, Maitlis announced her resignation from the BBC after signing with Global, the parent of LBC, to launch a daily podcast and joint radio show again with ex-BBC journalist, Jon Sopel. In an address at the 2022 Edinburgh TV Festival, she cautioned journalists about self-censorship in the name of being reluctant to take on populist critics.
In 2012 Maitlis received an honorary doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University. She won Broadcast Journalist of the Year at the 2017 London Press Club Awards and the Network Presenter of the Year award at the RTS Television Journalism Awards in 2019 and 2020. She received the German Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award in 2020.Maitlis presented the 2012 World Jewish Relief’s annual dinner at Guildhall, London. She was educated at King Edward VII School, Sheffield, and then studied English at Queens College, Cambridge. As of 2019, she was the only Newsnight presenter not to have attended a private school.
Emily Maitlis Age
She was born on September 6, 1970, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Emily Maitlis Husband
She is married to her husband, investment manager Mark Gwynne, who is Catholic, whom she met while working in Hong Kong. She proposed to her husband while on holiday in Mauritius in 2000. They are residents of London and have two sons. She is a keen runner and a WellChild Celebrity Ambassador. She is a fluent speaker of French, Spanish and Italian, and some Mandarin.
In 2002, it was reported that Maitlis had been stalked for over a decade by Edward Vines, a former platonic friend from her time at university, who would appear at her place of work. He admitted to harassing her and was sentenced to four months imprisonment, but released because of the time he had spent in detention on remand. A restraining order was imposed. In September 2016, Vines was sentenced to three years imprisonment for breach of the restraining order in respect of Maitlis. In January 2018, Vines was jailed for 3 years and 9 months for breaching a restraining order forbidding him from contacting her. He admitted two charges of breaching the restraining order by sending two letters to Maitlis, as well as emails and letters to her mother in 2015. In September 2019, while a prisoner at HM Prison Ranby in Nottinghamshire, he pleaded not guilty to breaching an order restraining him from contacting Maitlis by writing a letter with the intention of having it sent to her. That led to his being sentenced, in February 2020, to a further three years’ imprisonment. In July 2022, Vines was convicted of attempting to break a restraining order by writing letters to Maitlis and her mother while in prison. Vines was told by the judge to anticipate a “lengthy prison sentence” in due course. In a BBC Radio 5 Live interview, Maitlis likened the long-term harassment to having a chronic illness.
Emily Maitlis Children
She is a mother of two sons, Milo and Max.
Emily Maitlis Family
She was born in Canada to British Jewish parents. She is the daughter of Professor Peter Maitlis FRS, Emeritus Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Sheffield, and Marion Maitlis, a psychotherapist. Her paternal grandmother was a Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany. She was brought up in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. Her family is Jewish, although she has said that they are “not very practising”.
Emily Maitlis Height
She stands at a height of 5 feet 7 inches (1.7 meters) tall.
Emily Maitlis Instagram
Her Instagram handle is @officiallymaitlis.
