Naga Munchetty is a much-loved staple on the BBC Breakfast show, appearing next to her co-star Charlie Stayt from Wednesday to Saturday on the iconic red sofa.
She joined the channel in 2010, originally presenting the early morning bulletins on the BBC News Channel and BBC World News before taking up a permanent hosting role.
The 50-year-old television star started her broadcast career as a reporter for Reuters Financial Television. She later went on to work as a senior producer for CNBC Europe before deciding she preferred being in the spotlight. She returned to reporting for Channel 4 News and took up a presenting role with Bloomberg Television.
In January 2021, Naga shocked her adoring fans by announcing a new radio role. She would step in to replace Emma Barnett on her Radio 5 programme from Mondays to Wednesdays while still maintaining her on-screen career on BBC Breakfast.
While we know a huge deal about Naga's extensive career and fame, we know less about the TV star when she's not on air.
Marriage and family
Naga is married to James Haggar. They dated for some time before they eventually tied the knot in 2007. The loved-up couple were enjoying life so much that starting a family just didn't ever seem to fit in with their demanding schedules.
The BBC Breakfast star has since confessed that they have decided they have no desire to have children and faced criticism over their choice.
In a past interview with The Times Naga explained: "We never tried and I never miscarried, we just never really wanted them. We kept putting the decision off, then life got better for us, we became more selfish . . . and just didn’t find the time."
The journalist also revealed that she'd once been called "wicked" for "denying" her mother grandchildren. Speaking to The Sun, she revealed, "It's quite interesting, isn't it, how people react?"
Husband
Unlike his famous wife Naga, James likes to keep himself out of the spotlight despite his extensive career in broadcast television.
James currently serves as a television director and broadcast consultant for Sky News panel show The Pledge, but before landing the role with the TV giant, he was a senior director for CNBC International for over a decade.
His expertise in the industry is extensive, with James also having forged a career as the senior director for Five News and OK TV for seven years before his CNBC role. Naga's husband also spent two years with ITV studios.
Health Battle
Naga opened up about her diagnosis of adenomyosis in 2023 while hosting her BBC Radio 5 Live show, with the TV star confessing she'd struggled for years before medics told her she actually had the condition at age 47.
In an interview with The Times, the newsreader stated she'd never really known what a "normal period" felt like. Naga told the publication: "(A normal period) It's not throwing up. It's not diarrhoea. It's not hugging a toilet and crying because you're sweating through pain, fainting, cramped over, loading yourself up with painkillers way more than you should be, from the age of 15."
On one occasion, the pain was so severe that Naga phoned for an ambulance and even instructed her husband, James, not to allow doctors to perform a hysterectomy if she were to find herself unconscious.
On the NHS website, adenomyosis is described as a condition with symptoms that are more noticeable during menstruation, with the lining of the womb starting to grow into the muscle in the wall of the womb.
Past flames
In an interview last year, Naga opened up about her first love and not being very popular with the opposite sex during her school years.
Speaking about her love life on The Big Issue's Adrian Lobb for Letter To My Younger Self, the TV star said: "I was never fancied at school. I didn't have a boyfriend until I was 17.
"But he was wonderful, my first boyfriend. I was with him for a couple of years. I think it’s so good to have boyfriends and girlfriends when you’re younger because you learn to accept that things don't necessarily last, and they don’t have to."
Looking back with fondness, Naga added: "You can enjoy the time you have. You’re changing, things change... But ending relationships will always cause pain, so do it with kindness."
Huge row with husband in the street
The news anchor once opened up about a fight she'd ever had with her husband, James, during a chat on Her Spirit podcast with former BBC Breakfast host Louise Minchin and Triathlon presenter Annie Emmerson.
It is well known that Naga is a keen runner and likes to stay active most days; however, it would seem that running isn't a passion that her husband, James, shares.
Naga persuaded James it would be good for them both to compete in a marathon together in tough weather conditions back in 2013, which led to her husband's one and only meltdown, with him blasting her as a "liar."
Recalling the story from 2020, she said: "So I roped him into training for the marathon, and it was horrible. The weather was horrible; it had snowed, it was cold, and it was miserable.
"Anyway, we were running, and he hated it. He didn't want to do it, he got roped into it, he moaned all the time. Every time I said, 'Let’s go for a run', he would moan and would be moaning the whole time, like miserable. So it was literally a case of me dragging him along."
Naga explained: "We probably had two miles to go home up a hill, and he said, 'How long does it say?' And I said, 'Oh, it's saying eigh.t'," she added: "Well, I won't tell you what he said, but he actually had a meltdown in the road."
Mimicking her husband's voice, Naga shouted: "'You're lying to me, I'm sick of you lying about how far we're going to go, lying about this, I don't want to do this, you made me'."
"He was raging, and that was one of the huge rows," reflected Naga.
BBC Breakfast airs every day on BBC One from 6am.
