Kay Burley confirms future following reviews of Sky News present ‘departure’

Sky News presenter Kay Burley has responded to reports that she is set to leave her position as the host of the channel’s breakfast show.

The 64-year-old first joined the fledgling news channel 35 years ago and has since gone on to become one of the UK’s most well-recognised and high-profile news anchors.

Burley has been presenting Breakfast with Kay during the 6am – 10am morning slot since October 2019 but a report from Deadline on 16 December suggested that she was about to leave the show within the next few days.

However, the host has now quashed those reports about her future on the Sky, stating that she doesn’t intend on leaving her current role anytime soon.

“I don’t know where that comes from, but neither of them are true,” Burley told the Mail Online. “I am off on the 19th [as] planned and then I am back on January 16.

When asked about reports in the press that she was leaving the breakfast show, she said: “Not that I’m aware of [that rumour], unless you are telling me something new.”

She added: “I am getting up at half past three in the morning… I’m back after I have been away to the Seychelles.”

Burley was one of the first faces to appear on Sky News when it was first launched in 1989. An insider from the broadcaster reportedly told Deadline, “It would be massive if she left.”

The Independent has contacted Sky News for comment.

Burley was involved in the reporting of the death of Princess Diana in 1997, and broke news of the 9/11 attacks on New York in 2001 that won the channel its first Bafta. Other royal reporting includes her coverage of the wedding of King Charles and Camilla, and the birth of Prince George, the son of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton.

In recent times Burley has faced a number of personal challenges, including her sister being diagnosed with cancer, and an accident that left her “covered in blood” last year. The broadcaster, who has been open about her health issues including a breast cancer scare, said she was told she “could have died had circumstances been slightly different”.

The straight-talking presenter’s career has not been without controversy. In 2008, she was criticised for asking the former girlfriend of serial killer Steve Wright if she thought he would have killed had their sex life been better. The channel was forced to say that comments Burley made about Palestinian ambassador Husam Zomlot gave a “potentially misleading representation of his views”. Zomlot thanked Sky for the correction.

In addition to other blunders, including commenting that David Cameron had “put on weight” during a live broadcast, she was taken off air in 2020 for celebrating her 60th birthday in breach of Covid restrictions.