When you meet Kay Burley, there is something utterly terrifying about her. She’s very charming and extremely funny – but there is a steely core you most definitely do not want to get on the wrong side of.
Those who have worked with her at Sky News over her incredible 36-year reign say the same.
‘She has ruled the place with an iron fist,’ says one. ‘She loves good talent, she can be very kind and she is very supportive of other women but do not upset her!’
Burley, 64, is old school. She has high standards, which many adore her for. But not, it would seem, the younger generation of Sky staff, who, I’ve been told, have been baying for her blood for years. In fact, in 2020 during lockdown, one tipped me off about a 60th birthday party she threw which broke Covid rules.
Along with her former best friend, Sky News political editor Beth Rigby and other colleagues, she enjoyed a bash at the Century Club in central London.
As the result of my story, she was taken off air for six months.
When you meet Kay Burley, there is something utterly terrifying about her, writes KATIE HIND
‘I thought I was Covid-compliant,’ Kay said later. ‘I made a mistake. I was an idiot and I let myself and my viewers down. I’m sorry for what I did and for any heartache I caused the loyal friends with me at the time. I was appropriately sanctioned.’
The youngsters, I’m told, were furious at this outcome. ‘They didn’t think they would see her again,’ says one Sky insider. ‘They thought they had killed her off, that there was no way the bosses would have her back after she broke rules during Covid.
‘The view they took was that she couldn’t possibly ever scrutinise MPs again, but never underestimate Kay. The power she wielded was big, she took her punishment on the chin and came back like nothing had happened. The kids were very cross.’
So imagine the merriment among the under-30 wokerati at Sky News on Wednesday when, just over four years after their failed bid to oust her, Burley announced live on her breakfast show that she’s retiring.
‘After over a million minutes of live TV news, more than anyone else in the world, it’s time for me to indulge in some of my other passions, including my love for travel,’ she declared.
‘So, after covering 12 separate general elections, including Sir Keir Starmer’s victory last year, I am retiring from Sky News, let politicians of every party just rejoice at that news.
‘Thank you for waking up and tuning in every morning. I can’t tell you how much I have appreciated your support over the last three-and-a-half decades – you’re awesome.
‘I will post more on my social media and hope to see you around. Please keep in touch.’
Kay Burley on the day Sky News launched in 1989. She announced her retirement on the channel’s 36th birthday
The fact her announcement came on Sky’s 36th birthday made it more poignant. To outsiders it seemed like the perfect moment for one of the channel’s founding presenters to bow out.
But is there more to this decision than meets the eye?
Network insiders certainly believe so, claiming Burley’s position there was becoming increasingly untenable.
‘Kay was expensive,’ says one. ‘She felt she should be treated with the utmost respect, paid very, very well and allowed to do whatever she wanted. She was extremely hardworking and ruled things as she wanted. But the fabric had been changing.
‘While television companies have been populated with young behind-the-scenes staff for decades, Sky had a habit of picking up very Leftie ones. Some, very much snowflakes. That simply didn’t fit with Kay’s vibe. She wants results, she wants the best and the two cultures clashed. There is now much talk that it wasn’t her decision to go.
‘She loved that job but things became very uncomfortable in recent years.’
Kay would not be the first broadcaster of her generation to find herself at odds with a much younger production team.
Burley’s close friend Piers Morgan was forced to quit ITV’s Good Morning Britain in 2021 after refusing to apologise for saying he didn’t believe Meghan Markle when she claimed during an Oprah Winfrey interview she had felt suicidal while in the UK.
He says he was driven out by his younger, woke colleagues.
Sky has been accused of becoming increasingly woke too. ‘Kay is anti all of that, she calls a spade a spade,’ an insider says.
Then there is the matter of money. The future of Sky has been much discussed recently. While it has an annual budget of £100 million, it has been reported to have racked up tens of millions of pounds in losses.
Staff have also spoken of a sharp reduction in the number of shifts available in recent months, though Sky News insists some areas of spending, including staffing, have increased even as freelance costs have been cut.
Burley’s reported £600,000-a-year salary is just not in keeping with the rest of the spending, according to an insider.
As for claims she is retiring, friends say ‘no chance’. Burley showed she has no plans for that when she was unveiled as the latest celebrity signing by PR firm Dundas Communications – the day after her Sky bombshell.
Dundas, with clients including Kate Garraway, Dermot O’Leary and Billie Piper, deals in pure entertainment, prompting speculation Burley will move away from news presenting.
It will be a real change for her. Born and raised in Wigan, Lancashire to working-class parents, she attended Whitley High School before taking her first steps in journalism at the Wigan Evening Post and Chronicle aged 17. She worked for BBC local radio stations, then at Tyne Tees Television, before joining now-defunct TV-am in 1985 as a reporter and occasional newsreader.
Her big break came when she was recruited by Andrew Neil for Sky News in 1989, covering big stories like the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and the September 11 US terror attacks.
Infamously, in 2010 she made Peter Andre cry while grilling him on his relationship with ex-wife Katie Price soon after their split.
Brash Burley was cleared of bullying after many Ofcom complaints, plus criticism by Andre. Despite being viewed as tough and no-nonsense, in September 2018 she was given her own afternoon show on Sky News and a year later, she was moved to the breakfast slot, with her programme rebranded as Breakfast With Kay Burley. She regularly pulled in 125,000 viewers.
It was a show of which she was enormously proud. She revealed during a huge launch party it had always been her dream to host her own breakfast show.
Now, it’s time for a lie-in before her next move. But be sure on whichever show she ends up, the chances of her-younger Sky colleagues tuning in are slim indeed.
