Reeta Chakrabarti is now the live news anchor for BBC News, having taken over from Clive Myrie in Ukraine who tweeted on Tuesday, March 8 that he was returning to London, but would be back.
Reeta is a very experienced journalist, with a long career behind her at the BBC, beginning in 1994 on the Breakfast Programme as well as BBC Radio 5 Live.
She became political correspondent for the BBC in 1999 and in 2014 she was appointed as news presenter on BBC One and the BBC News Channel. We'll now be seeing Reeta every evening on BBC News, as she reports live from Ukraine.
The situation in Ukraine is highly dangerous and news teams have been commended by viewers and colleagues for their bravery just being there in person to report on events, in extreme and unpredictable circumstances. Here we take a look at what we know about Reeta Chakrabarti as she clocks in for her warzone-reporting shift.
Where did she grow up?
Reeta was born in Ealing, London to an Indian Bengali family. Her father worked at a radio station and her mother was a teacher. She was raised in Birmingham before heading to India as a teenager attending the Calcutta International School. She then studied English and French at Exeter College, Oxford from 1984 to 1988, including spending a year in France.
Is she married?
Reeta is married to Paul Hamilton. Paul is Professor of English at Queen Mary University in London and the pair live together in North London.
Paul's research is primarily on Enlightenment and Romantic thought and literature and he is well known for his work on the relations between literature, philosophy and political theory. He has also written on critical theory generally and the transitions between modernism and postmodernism.
Reeta is known to love the poetry of romantic poet, John Keats. In fact she chose it as her specialist subject on Celebrity Mastermind when she appeared on the programme in 2016.
And on the subject of books and poems, Reeta knows her stuff - acting as the Chair of the Panel of judges for the Costa Book of the Year in 2021.
Does she have children?
Reeta and Paul have three children: A daughter named Roxy and two sons. Two of her children are twins.
Who is her famous sister?
Reeta has a famous actress for a sister. Lolita Chakrabarti has played roles in Sky Atlantic drama Riviera, Defending the Guilty for the BBC and Criminal for Netflix and movie All is True, starring Sir Kenneth Branagh.
She recently starred in the hugely successful BBC1 drama Vigil, Showtrial (BBC1) plus Wheel of Time (Amazon). Other screen credits include: Defending the Guilty (BBC), My Mad Fat Diary 3 (E4), Vera (ITV), Death in Paradise (BBC1), The Smoke (Sky1), One Night (BBC1), The Other Child (Teamworx), Thorne: Scaredeycat (Sky), Outnumbered, Hustle, Holby City, Extras Christmas Special, Waking The Dead, Silent Witness, Bodies – the Finale (BBC), Forgiven (Channel 4), The Last Detective, Fortysomething, Always and Everyone and WPC Jamilla Blake in The Bill (ITV).
Being on TV with Clive Myrie
In November 2021 she participated in an episode of the BBC Two programme Celebrity Antiques Road Trip with fellow newsreader Clive Myrie. In the same month, she also appeared in a Children in Need special episode of Bargain Hunt on BBC1, with her daughter Roxy.
