Kay Burley (born 17 December 1960) is an English television newsreader, presenter and journalist. She currently anchors the 2.00pm to 5.00pm strand Tuesday to Friday on the Sky News station.
Contents

1 Early life
2 Career
3 Criticism
4 Writing
5 Dancing on Ice
6 Personal life
7 References
8 External links

Early life

Kay Burley was born in 1960 in Wigan, Lancashire. She was raised as a Roman Catholic. Her first reporting job was at the Evening Post and Chronicle in Wigan at the age of 17. She worked in local radio and TV, including Tyne Tees Television before joining TV-am in 1985 as a reporter and occasional newsreader. From 1987, she presented TV-am's first hour, filling in for Caroline Righton and covering Anne Diamond's maternity leave.


Career

Burley was given her first job by Andrew Neil She joined Sky Television, launching the Sky One Entertainment Channel in November 1988 with her own documentary "The Satellite Revolution". She moved to the then fledgling Sky News in 1988.

Among many noteworthy assignments, she fronted Sky News coverage from Sri Lanka following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and subsequent tsunami. In 2005, she was prominent in Sky News' coverage of both the General Election and the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles.

Burley is also known for presenting news coverage on Christmas morning on Sky News, a tradition that, as of 2011, she has upheld for the last 21 years.

Burley is also an occasional contributor to the tabloid Sunday Mirror, and in the summer of 2006 appeared occasionally on Five's news bulletins.


Criticism

On 3 February 2010, Burley interviewed Peter Andre less than 24 hours after Katie Price and Alex Reid were married in Las Vegas. Andre was booked in advance to promote his new album, when Burley questioned him about Price, Reid and his children. He was also asked to comment on an interview Dwight Yorke, the father of Price's first child Harvey, had given to Sky News in October 2009. When the questions advanced to asking whether Andre feared losing custody of his children to Reid, he became visibly upset, declared "I was not prepared for this", and asked to end the interview.Burley's treatment of Andre garnered over 900 complaints to Ofcom.

Later in February 2010, Burley was forced to apologise on-air for offending Catholics when she joked that US Vice President Joe Biden, who had ashes on his forehead to mark Ash Wednesday, had a "large bruise" that he had picked up from "walking into a door" or from slipping on ice during his recent trip to Canada for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

On 8 May 2010, Burley was heckled during an interview outside the Houses of Parliament by a protester who chanted "Sack Kay Burley. Watch the BBC. Sky News is shit!" Burley, who was talking to Ben Page from Ipsos MORI, commented that "they don't like The Sun, they don't like us, they don't like Rupert" before the interview was abruptly terminated, with the broadcast cutting to a silent, animated Sky News logo for over a minute.Burley was also criticised for an interview with David Babbs, Executive Director of 38 Degrees in which she repeatedly interrupted him as he talked about the possible consequences of a coalition between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, saying, "your views are not going to sway the people that are talking behind closed doors. [...] The public have voted for a hung parliament. We have got exactly what we voted for... so you marching down past Westminster today will make no difference whatsoever. [...] Why don't you just go home? Why don't you go home and watch it on Sky News?"The Guardian commented "Paxman, it ain't." The media regulator Ofcom received over 700 complaints about the incident from viewers, but found no breach of its code.

On 9 September 2010 Burley interrupted Labour MP Chris Bryant during an interview regarding developments in the News of the World phone hacking affair with the words, "No, no, no, you can't say that, sir... No, no, no, no, I have to interrupt you, do you have evidence for that?... Pretty strong claim if you don't!" When Bryant responded that the evidence for his statement was clearly included in the parliamentary debate that Burley was actually covering in that section of the programme, she replied, "So you are in a position to have listened to the debate and read the report and as a result you are content to say that on telly.?" Bryant responded, "I have just said that. You seem to be a bit dim, if you don't mind me saying so."


Writing

Burley's first novel, titled First Ladies, was published on 12 May 2011.The book is an erotic romance set in the media industry, including television news.


Dancing on Ice

Burley was a contestant for the second series of the ITV reality television show Dancing on Ice beginning on 20 January 2007. She was skating for MacMillan Cancer Care, in memory of her mother who died of breast cancer.She also donated her appearance fee to the charity. Kay went out of the show in the fifth week following a skate-off.


Personal life

Burley is twice divorced and has one son from a one-year marriage to Steve Kutner, a football agent of Frank Lampard.

Burley is a fan of Arsenal, as she revealed in an interview in the London Lite newspaper (30 April 2009).

Burley was voted What Satellite TV magazine's "Most Desirable Woman on TV" for three consecutive years.

Her fitness regime consists of running four times a week and doing aerobics, maintaining her weight at around 8 stone 10 pounds (55 kg).