Sky News anchorwoman Kay Burley is quitting the channel after 36 years. The 63-year-old presenter, a founding member of the 24-hour news channel, announced her departure live on air today. As Britain's longest-serving female newsreader, Kay is known for covering major events, clashing with leading politicians and interviewing everyone from world leaders to showbiz supremos. In her inimitable non-nonsense style, the star has covered countless tragedies in her time on air, from the death of Diana, Princess of Wales to natural disasters like the Asian Tsunami. Off-camera, Kay has dealt with her own personal sadnesses too...

Kay's mum died in her 50s from breast cancer. In an interview with Good Morning Britain, she 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'," she tearfully told then GMB presenters Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid. "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.".

The anchor lost her trade unionist father when he was 66 to a heart attack, telling The Late Late Show: "He was the first feminist I ever met and he's guided me throughout my career. Sadly we lost him too soon, as with my mummy but he taught my sister and I that we should ask questions because there’s no such thing as a stupid question. Just ask the question.". Kay told the Daily Mail that while she doesn't have the faulty BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene, she's still in the high-risk category of getting breast cancer. This means the star has a mammogram and and ultrasound every six months to give herself the best chance of beating the disease if it appears.

Early last year, she revealed her younger sister was facing the disease in a social media post which read: "Jacqueline, who has been stoic in her determination to take on a disease that claimed both my mother and grandmother. Doesn't she look fabulous in her wig?". Kay went on to tell The Times: "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.".

Kay married fellow reporter Steve Burley in 1980, when she was just 19. They divorced six years later and she went onto wed football agent Steve Kutner, a former agent for Chelsea legend Frank Lampard, when she was 28. The star told Mail Online in 2011 she had had "two successful marriages". Kay and Steve had their son Alexander in 1993, divorcing a year later. She rarely speaks about her grown up son but in 2022, did help to promote his collector car market consultant business, Wolf Hub, on social media.

Kay eats well and runs twice a week. She once controversially gave up food for 10 days after embarking on a health retreat. The star had skin cancer when she was four, telling the Daily Mail: "My mother became alarmed when a mole on my back grew rapidly - it turned out to be a malignant melanoma. I was in and out of hospital for a year and had three operations.". Now in her 60s, the presenter had a facelift when she was 50 and when she was 40 she had cosmetic surgery to lift her appearance around her eyes, saying: "I'm not going to allow Mother Nature to mug me off any sooner than she has to. It's not for everybody, but for me it was the right thing to do.".

Kay first sparked rumours she was set to quit Sky News last May, when she took time off to move into her stunning new home. She gave fans a little glimpse in a photo showcasing beautiful high ceilings, period features including archways and cornices and original wooden floors. Light flooded in her floor to ceiling window, with a picturesque garden, trees and fields in view outside. She often shows her Irish red setters enjoying the sunshine outside the property.