IT was the live coverage of the Russian-Ukraine war for BBC News that brought Reeta Chakrabarti once again to the forefront of field reporting last year.
A household name, Chakrabarti began her career with BBC in 1994 as a presenter on the network’s Breakfast Programme and Radio 5 Live, before becoming its general news correspondent.
Chakrabarti belongs to an Indian Bengali family and was born in Ealing, London. Her father worked at a radio station whereas her mother was a teacher. Speaking about what home means to her, Chakrabarti told the GG2 Power List, “Home is the place where I am most myself.”
Though she was mostly raised in Birmingham, she also lived in India and attended the Calcutta International School in Kolkata (then Calcutta) during her teenage years. She also studied at King Edward VI High School for Girls in Birmingham. Between 1984 and 1988, she studied English and French at Exeter College, Oxford.
Chakrabarti has been leading a busy life in her current role as a BBC News presenter, reporting on current events and keeping the public informed on the latest developments from across the world. She presents BBC News at Six, BBC News at Ten, and BBC News at One.
On her daily routine, she said, “I deliver the day's news to the nation, from either the studio or out on location – at home and abroad.”
Chakrabarti has also chaired and hosted numerous corporate events and award ceremonies, including the Royal Television Society’s (RTS) Educational Television Awards Dinners in 2003 and 2004 and the RTS’s 2018 TV Journalism Awards. In 2018, she also hosted the opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Buckingham Palace.
Meanwhile, Chakrabarti succeeded Dr John Sentamu as Chancellor of York St John University in October 2019 and began her tenure in March 2020.
Commenting on her inspiration to succeed in career, she said, “I have looked up to many talented people throughout my career.” Also acknowledging that hers is a high-pressure job, Chakrabarti feels daily workouts are important to stay on top of the game.
“I swim and I take the stairs! I love literature and art, so I read and go to exhibitions. And my big indulgence is opera,” she shared.
And as she feels that it is very unfair to mention only one of her favourite books, she named two: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and Middlemarch by George Eliot.
Chakrabarti is married to Paul Hamilton, an English Professor at Queen Mary University of London. The couple has three children and lives in North London.
