Dermot Murnaghan

Dermot John Murnaghan was born on 26 December 1957 in Barnstaple, Devon, and grew up across Northern Ireland — in Armagh, Newry, and Holywood — shaped by the landscape and people of a region that never quite left him. He attended St Malachy's Primary School and Sullivan Upper School before reading history at the University of Sussex, where he earned both a BA and MA by 1980. A postgraduate diploma in journalism from City University London then set him on the path that would define the next four decades of his life. He began as a trainee reporter at the Coventry Evening Telegraph in 1984, moving swiftly into television as a researcher and reporter for Channel 4's The Business Programme in 1985. Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, he built his craft across Channel 4 Daily, Channel 4 News, and a stint at the European Business Channel in Switzerland, developing the calm, authoritative presence that colleagues would later call unflappable. At ITV from 1992, Dermot became one of the nation's most trusted faces on the news, presenting the Lunchtime News, the Nightly News, and more than 100 episodes of the current affairs series The Big Story. On 31 August 1997 — a night that stopped the country — he was the ITV anchor who told the British public that Diana, Princess of Wales had died, remaining on air for eighteen hours as the story unfolded. He later said the experience felt like telling a close relative the most devastating news imaginable. His BBC years, from 2002 to 2007, brought him to BBC Breakfast, co-anchoring alongside colleagues including Sophie Raworth, Natasha Kaplinsky, and Susanna Reid, as well as hosting a revival of Treasure Hunt and, from 2003, the beloved quiz show Eggheads. In October 2007 he joined Sky News, where he would serve as lead anchor for nearly sixteen years. His Sunday morning programme Murnaghan ran from 2011 to 2016, earning him a Royal Television Society award for an interview that led directly to a Cabinet resignation. On 8 September 2022, standing outside Buckingham Palace, he was the first broadcaster to announce the death of Queen Elizabeth II. In June 2025, Dermot disclosed publicly that he had been diagnosed with stage IV prostate cancer. Characteristically, he faced it with openness and purpose, becoming a tireless advocate for screening — especially among men over 50. He died peacefully at his home in North London on 11 July 2026, at the age of 68, survived by his wife Maria and their four children. His family asked that those wishing to honour his memory consider donating to Prostate Cancer UK, Prostate Cancer Research, and North London Hospice. He was, in the words of those who knew and worked with him, a broadcasting giant who never forgot how to be a kind and generous human being.