Cover story
Newsnight presenter Victoria Derbyshire on living life to its fullest, juggling a career and family, and why she never wants to retire
We’re used to seeing her grill politicians about their policies or deliver poignant human interest stories,butaway from our screens, Victoria Derbyshire loves nothing more than dancing around her kitchen with her friends, or nosing round an antiques market. Still, the veteran broadcaster admits that while her house is full of laughter, she’s just as direct at home in Surrey with her husband, Mark, and their teenage boys, Oliver, 18, and Joe, 15, as she is on air.
‘I’m kind of the same person at home as I am at work,’ Victoria tells woman&home. ‘You can always tell what I’m thinking as I wear my heart on my sleeve. There’s less intensity at home, for obvious reasons, but a popular podcast about the conflict I think I’m just as direct.’
Her frankness has held Victoria in good stead over her 30-plus year When Emily Maitlis announced she 54-year-old is just as honest when we name was mentioned in the press askabouteverythingfromtheupsanddowns of her job to her breast cancer diagnosis in 2015, and the domestic abuse she suffered at the hands of her father as a child in Lancashire.
Shortly before the world was plunged into the COVID-19 pandemic, the broadcaster found out her eponymous BAFTA-winning show was to be cancelled after five years. But Victoria tells us that she ‘didn’t have much time to process it’ thanks to her other job presenting the 9am news on the BBC as the world faced uncertainty.
Fast forward to 2022 and in addition to BBC News,Victoria was presenting asapossiblereplacement.Thedown-to-earth star tells woman&home she applied for the coveted position as anchor on the show alongside Kirsty Wark along with everyone else – and screamed with joy when she heard she’d got the job.
Now, five months into her new role, Victoria is busier than ever. As she breezes into our cover shoot, she’s friendly and ready to make conversation. With one eye on the headlines via her phone she says, ‘Switching off can be hard,’ but right now she says she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Life has been a bit mad recently and I’m loving Newsnight.
I joined during one of the most intense news periods that there’s been, between the political instability, the financial instability and the beginning of the reign of King Charles III. It’s our job to guide our viewers through whatever is happening in the world, and help them make sense of it while asking the questions they want answered by those who are in power.
It can be hard to wind down afterwards.
By the time I get home it’s 12.15am. I spend 45 minutes making a cup of tea and sitting on the floor cuddling my
