Emily Maitlis | |
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 Maitlis in 2010 | |
| Born | (1970-09-06)6 September 1970 (age 55) Hamilton, Ontario, Canada |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Education | Queens' College, Cambridge (BA) |
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| Employers | |
| Notable credits | |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Father | Peter Maitlis |
Emily Maitlis (born 6 September 1970) is a Canadian-born British journalist and former newsreader for theBBC who was the lead anchor of theBBC Two news and current affairs programmeNewsnight until the end of 2021. Maitlis has since been a presenter of the daily podcastThe News Agents onLBC Radio.[1]
In November 2019, Maitlis carried out an hour-longinterview with Prince Andrew, Duke of York for the BBC, in which she probed the prince's relationship with American convicted sex offenderJeffrey Epstein.
Maitlis was born inHamilton, Ontario, Canada, toBritish Jewish parents;[2] her paternal grandmother was a Jewish refugee who fledNazi Germany.[2] She is the daughter ofPeter Maitlis, Emeritus Professor ofInorganic Chemistry at theUniversity of Sheffield, and Marion Basco, a psychotherapist from Cambridge.[3][4][5][6]
Her mother studied French and Spanish atSt Hugh's College, Oxford. In September 1958, her mother began teaching French at Cambridgeshire High School for Girls (since 1974Long Road Sixth Form College).[7]
Maitlis was brought up on Park Avenue inSheffield, South Yorkshire, with her two older sisters, Nicky andSally.[8] She was educated atKing Edward VII School, Sheffield,[9] and read English atQueens' College, Cambridge.[10] At university, she took part inThe Marlowe Society, in productions such asDoctor Faustus, directed byClare Venables, with Stuart Crossman, andDominic Rowan.[11] She gained a 2.1 degree.[12]
Maitlis initially wanted to work as a theatre director, prompted by her love for drama, but instead went into radio broadcasting.[5] Before working in the news, she was a documentary maker inCambodia and China. She worked for theNBC network and was based in Hong Kong.
She spent six years in Hong Kong withTVB News andNBC Asia, initially as a business reporter creating documentaries and then as a presenter in Hong Kong covering the collapse of thetiger economies in 1997.[13] She also covered thetransfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong withJon Snow forChannel 4.[14] She moved toSky News in the UK as a business correspondent and toBBC London News when the programme was relaunched in 2001.
During 2005, Maitlis appeared as the question-master on the game showThe National Lottery: Come And Have A Go. She was a regular presenter on the BBC News Channel for a decade between 2006 and 2016, alongsideBen Brown andJon Sopel. She also presentedBBC Breakfast and, from May 2006 until July 2007, presentedSTORYFix on BBC News, a light-hearted look at the week's news set to upbeat music. In July 2007, she was appointed as a contributing editor toThe Spectator magazine, an unpaid post. This had been approved by her immediate manager, the head of BBC Television NewsPeter Horrocks, but the decision was subsequently overturned by his superior, the BBC News directorHelen Boaden.[15] In 2012, Maitlis presented theUS 2012 election coverage on BBC One and the BBC News Channel alongsideDavid Dimbleby, when incumbent US PresidentBarack Obama andMitt Romney were fighting for the presidency of the US. In 2016, she presented a news discussion programme calledThis Week's World onBBC Two, late afternoon on Saturdays.
Maitlis was a leading presenter ofNewsnight on BBC Two, alongsideKirsty Wark andEmma Barnett. She joined the programme as a relief presenter in 2006, working her way up to be the lead anchor of the programme following the departure ofEvan Davis in 2018. After each show, before bed, she answered emails from viewers. In April 2019, she publishedAirhead: The Imperfect Art of Making News, a book describing how television news is produced.[5][16] As of 2019, she was the onlyNewsnight presenter not to have attended a private school.[5] Also that year, Maitlis was amongst the highest-paid BBC news and current affairs staff, receiving a salary between £260,000-£264,999.[17]
In November 2019,Maitlis interviewedPrince Andrew, Duke of York, about his relationship with American sex offender and paedophileJeffrey Epstein, who had died in August while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. The interview was broadcast on the BBC'sNewsnight programme on 16 November 2019.[18] Due in part to the fallout from Prince Andrew's disastrous performance during this interview, he resigned from his royal duties.[19][20]
In February 2020, her interview with Prince Andrew wonInterview of the Year andScoop of the Year awards at the 2020RTS Television Journalism Awards.[21] Maitlis was an executive producer ofA Very Royal Scandal (2024), a film about the interview. Also released that year wasScoop, adapted from a book of the same name by Sam McAlister, a former BBC producer.
From 2020, Maitlis presented the BBC podcast,Americast, withJon Sopel, the BBC's North America editor. The podcasts originally focused on the2020 election and contained analysis and various 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.[22][23][non-primary source needed]
Maitlis has described the journalism she performed as leading to the closure of the UK's only youth gender identity clinic, theTavistock Gender Identity Development Service, including a June 2020Newsnight segment which accused GIDS of granting patients access to medical transition "too quickly" - despite theCare Quality Commission saying that patients often waited up to two years for a first appointment.[24][25]
In aNewsnight discussion concerningBrexit on 15 July 2019,[26] a viewer alleged that Maitlis had been "sneering and bullying" towards columnistRod Liddle. Maitlis had accused Liddle of writing columns containing "consistent casual racism week after week" and asked Liddle if he would describe himself as a racist. 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 opponentTom Baldwin. The Complaints Unit did not find that Maitlis had failed to be even-handed. Conservative commentatorDouglas Murray described the segment as "more of a drive-by shooting than an interview".[27][28][29]
On 27 May 2020, the BBC said that Maitlis's introduction toNewsnight the night before, which discussed the allegations that the Prime Minister's chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, hadcontravened lockdown restrictions, "did not meet our standards of due impartiality". The BBC said: "The BBC must uphold the highest standards of due impartiality in its news output. Ms Maitlis started the show by declaring that Mr Cummings had 'broken the rules'."[30] She did not presentNewsnight on that day, asking to take the night off.[31] On 3 September 2020, a report by the BBC's Editorial Complaints Unit also ruled against Maitlis in the matter, stating Maitlis's 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".[32][33]
In February 2021, Maitlis was criticised for lacking impartiality after sharing a tweet byPiers Morgan, which condemned the government. Conservative Party politicianAndrew Bridgen said the BBC journalist ignored impartiality guidelines.[34] In her August 2022 MacTaggart Lecture at theEdinburgh TV Festival, Maitlis reflected on the incident, saying that BBC editors were initially complimentary. In the lecture, Maitlis also questioned the promptness with which the BBC apologised. The following day, after the Prime Minister's office complained, the BBC apologised and removed the segment from its streaming service.[35]
On 22 February 2022, Maitlis announced her resignation from the BBC after signing with Global, the parent ofLBC. She launched a daily podcast and joint radio show again with ex-BBC journalistJon Sopel.[36] In an address at the 2022Edinburgh TV Festival, Maitlis cautioned journalists about self-censorship in the name of being reluctant to take on populist critics.[35]
The News Agents, a daily podcast fromGlobal Media presented by Maitlis,Jon Sopel, andLewis Goodall, was launched on 30 August 2022.[37] The opening edition, titledTrump – Prison or President?, focused on theFBI investigation into Donald Trump's handling of presidential documents,[38] withAnthony Scaramucci, the former White House Director of Communications, appearing as a guest.[39]
In May 2023, Maitlis was featured in a two-partChannel 4 documentary calledAndrew: The Problem Prince, which explores the events leading up toPrince Andrew's infamousNewsnight interview of 2019.[40]
In November 2023, Maitlis was named as an executive producer onA Very Royal Scandal with Maitlis being played byRuth Wilson andMichael Sheen as Prince Andrew.[41]
Maitlis hosted overnight coverage of both the2024 United Kingdom general election and the2024 United States elections forChannel 4 alongsideKrishnan Guru-Murthy.[42][43]
In 2000, Maitlis married investment manager Mark Gwynne, who is Catholic and fromWaters Upton, Shropshire.[44][45][46][47] They met while working in Hong Kong.[48] She proposed to her husband while on holiday inMauritius.[49] They live inKensington, London, and have two sons.[5][46][50][51]
Maitlis is a keen runner[5] and aWellChild Celebrity Ambassador.[52] She speaks fluent French, Spanish and Italian.[53]
Maitlis presented the 2012World Jewish Relief's annual dinner atGuildhall, London.[54] While her parents were Jewish, she has said that she is "not very practising".[5]
In 2002, it was reported that Maitlis had been stalked for more than a decade by Edward Vines, a former friend from her time at university, who would frequently appear at her place of work. He admitted to harassing Maitlis and was sentenced to four months' imprisonment but was released because of the time he had spent in detention onremand. A restraining order was imposed.[55] In September 2016, Vines was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for breach of the restraining order in respect of Maitlis.[56] In January 2018, Vines was jailed for three years and nine months for breaching a restraining order forbidding him from contacting Maitlis.[57] 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.[58] In September 2019, while a prisoner atHM 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.[59] That led to his being sentenced, in February 2020, to a further three years' imprisonment.[60] In July 2022, Vines was convicted of attempting to break a restraining order by writing letters to Maitlis and her mother while in prison, for which he subsequently received an eight-year prison sentence.[61][62]
In aBBC Radio 5 Live interview, Maitlis likened the long-term harassment to having achronic illness.[63]
In 2012, Maitlis received an honorary doctorate fromSheffield Hallam University.[9] She won Broadcast Journalist of the Year at the 2017London Press Club Awards[64] and the Network Presenter of the Year award at theRTS Television Journalism Awards in 2019 and 2020.[65][66] She received the GermanHanns Joachim Friedrichs Award in 2020.[67]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Maitlis, who speaks fluent Spanish, Italian and French (and "crap" Mandarin), is no easy touch.
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