Dermot Murnaghan has died at the age of 68, around a year after publicly disclosing that he had been diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer.
His family confirmed in a statement that the veteran broadcaster passed away peacefully at his home in north London on Saturday morning.
Murnaghan became one of British television’s most recognisable news presenters over a career spanning more than three and a half decades, with major roles at Channel 4, ITV, the BBC and Sky News.
In 1997, he was the presenter who told ITV viewers that Princess Diana had died following a car crash in Paris.
More than 25 years later, on September 8, 2022, he was on air at Sky News to announce the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Away from rolling news, Murnaghan — who had four children with his wife, Maria — was also widely known as the host of the hit quiz programme Eggheads, which he presented for 11 years from 2003 to 2014.
The presenter left Sky in 2023 after more than 15 years with the broadcaster, and in June 2025 shared on X, formerly Twitter, that his prostate cancer was “incurable but it’s not untreatable”.
At the time, he urged men — particularly those over 50, anyone in higher-risk groups, or those experiencing symptoms — to get checked.
Former Sky News broadcaster Dermot Murnaghan has died at the age of 68. Above: On Sky News in August 2025 in what was his first TV outing after his diagnosis
In 1997, he broke the news of the death of Princess Diana in a car crash in Paris to viewers of ITV
Dermot Murnaghan and wife Maria at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London in 2012. The couple had four children
A family statement posted on X said: ‘It is with great sadness that the family of Dermot Murnaghan announces that he passed away at home in North London earlier this morning at the age of 68 following a period of illness with prostate cancer.
‘He died peacefully with his family at his side.
‘The family wish to thank the medical teams who cared for Dermot with such sensitivity and extraordinary compassion throughout his illness.
‘Also, for the many, many kind messages of goodwill that he received over the last year since his diagnosis of stage 4 prostate cancer and his subsequent campaigning to raise awareness for screening programmes for the disease.
‘In accordance with his wishes, the funeral will be a small family ceremony. A memorial service for friends and colleagues will follow at St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street (the Journalists’ Church) later this year.
‘The family request that anyone wishing to remember him considers supporting Prostate Cancer UK, Prostate Cancer Research and North London Hospice so that others may benefit from the research and care he received.’
The presenter became a vocal advocate and campaigner in raising awareness for the disease, aligned with the Mail’s own campaign for a national prostate cancer screening programme that could save thousands of lives.
Speaking after his diagnosis, he said: ‘Needless to say, my message to all men over 50, in high-risk groups, or displaying symptoms, is get yourself tested and campaign for routine prostate screening by the NHS.
‘Early detection is crucial. And be aware, this disease can sometimes progress rapidly without obvious symptoms’.
His first TV outing after his diagnosis was, fittingly, on Sky News in August 2025.
During the candid conversation, he repeated his call for better screening programmes to save other men from suffering the same fate as him.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast last November, he admitted he delayed getting tested ‘because I felt fine’.
Pictured: Dermot Murnaghan with his wife and four children, Jack, Alice, Molly and Kitty during a family holiday
Dermot Murnaghan with his wife and their three eldest children at a screening of Disney film Atlantis in 2001
Murnaghan was born two weeks past his due date in Barnstaple, Devon, on Boxing Day in 1957. At the age of four, the youngster had an eye operation to fix a squint
Dermot Murnaghan talking about his stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis on the BBC in November, 2025
Journalist and Sky News political editor Beth Rigby said she was ‘deeply saddened’ by the death of Murnaghan – whom she worked with during coverage of the 2019 general election on Sky.
She wrote on X: ‘Am deeply saddened to hear Dermot has died. He was peerless in the presenter chair, as sharp as a tack, and hugely charismatic – always with a ready smile and a twinkly eye.
‘I loved being on set, or in Downing Street, with Dermot because he was always in absolute command but so cool too. He made handling the most high pressure moments look effortless.’
Radio DJ Liz Kershaw, whose brother Andy Kershaw died of cancer in April, also paid tribute on X and urged her followers to get their prostate checked to ‘honour his memory’.
‘This is so sad. Dermot was a lovely, friendly, funny, clever bloke and so generous of spirit whenever I had the pleasure of working with him over the decades,’ the radio broadcaster wrote.
Murnaghan was born two weeks past his due date in Barnstaple, Devon, on Boxing Day in 1957.
His huge birth weight – 10lb 3oz – made him the heaviest baby in the hospital, a fact that was reported in the local newspaper.
At the age of four, the youngster had an eye operation to fix a squint.
Murnaghan’s father, who had served as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force, moved the family to his native Northern Ireland when his son was still young.
It meant Murnaghan grew up in Armagh and then the town of Holywood near Belfast as The Troubles began and then steadily worsened.
He went on to pass the 11-plus and so went to grammar school, as violence became increasingly commonplace.
‘We were only four or five miles from Belfast and you could hear the gun battles, the bombs going off at night, and the helicopters clattering overhead,’ the journalist wrote in the Daily Mail in 2009.
A keen sportsman, Murnaghan broke into his school’s rugby first team when he was 15 and twice broke his nose playing the sport.
He went on to study history at Sussex University, where he met his wife, Maria Keegan.
The couple would go on to marry in 1989 and have daughters Kitty, Molly and Alice and son Jack together.
After completing his undergraduate course, Murnaghan did an MA and then started a PhD.
But, driven by a desire to be a journalist, he chose to give up on his doctorate.
Instead, Murnaghan obtained a journalism qualification from City University in London.
Dermot Murnaghan reporting outside Buckingham Palace on the day Queen Elizabeth II died, on September 8, 2022
Dermot Murnaghan signing off at the end of his last shift on Sky News in 2023
Dermot Murnaghan reading the news on ITV in the 1990s
Dermot Murnaghan with ITV colleague Trevor McDonald launching new programme the Evening News in 1999
Dermot Murnaghan in a promotional photo for 1990s ITV game show A Seat On The Board
Dermot Murnaghan alongside co-presenter Mary Nightingale on ITV show Britain’s Most Wanted, 2000
Dermot Murnaghan as presenter of The Big Story, 1997
Dermot Murnaghan and Natasha Kaplinsky became a famous BBC Breakfast duo
Dermot Murnaghan with BBC colleagues Jonathan Dimbleby (centre) and John Sergeant, the presenters of the corporation’s 2001 General Election coverage
Dermot Murnaghan in the hot seat on game show Eggheads, which he presented from 2003 until 2014
Dermot Murnaghan alongside Suzi Perry as presenter of Treasure Hunt
He then began his career as a trainee reporter at local newspapers before joining Channel 4 as a researcher in the late 1980s.
He later became a reporter for the broadcaster’s The Business Programme.
After a brief stint in Switzerland to present the European Business Channel, Mr Murnaghan returned to Britain to host the business segments on The Channel 4 Daily, a new breakfast show by Channel 4.
In the early 1990s, he made the move to ITV, the BBC’s commercial rival.
In 1994, during a filming trip to Switzerland for his show The Big Story, he dived into Lake Geneva to save a five-year-old boy from drowning.
Writing in the Daily Mail in 1998, he recalled: ‘I heard the screams of the boy’s nanny first.
‘Then two or three feet under the water I saw this little face with bubbles coming out of it.
‘I jumped in instinctively. I was togged up in my presenter’s kit – didn’t even have time to kick off my shoes.’
On August 31, 1997, a Saturday night, Murnaghan was at home when news emerged that Princess Diana had been in a serious car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris.
He was called to work and had been on air for around three hours when the world’s media were told she had died after attempts to save her life in hospital had failed.
Murnaghan was also a keen cyclist. Above: Warming up for an event for Comic Relief in 2022
In 2017 the newsreader was ‘wiped out’ by a driver while he was cycling
Speaking on ITV’s Lorraine in 2022, Murnaghan explained: ‘I hear in my ear, “just read the statement, just read that statement”, which I had not read before.
‘And so for me, I am also computing, as the audience are computing, comprehending, that we have gone from a serious incident involving the Princess and her entourage to her being dead. ‘
He told viewers: ‘We have reports from Paris that Diana, Princess of Wales, has been killed in a car accident and that her partner, Dodi Fayed, has also been killed.’
After what was a successful stint at ITV, Murnaghan moved to the BBC, where he joined the presenting line-up of BBC Breakfast in 2002.
He and Natasha Kaplinsky formed what proved to be a popular presenting duo.
In 2007, Murnaghan made the leap back to commercial broadcasting with Sky News.
It was there that he remained until his final show almost 16 years later.
Away from news, Murnaghan also presented the true crime documentary series Killer Britain and Crimes That Shook Britain as well as the podcast Legends of News.
Outside of his work, Murnaghan was a keen cyclist and runner and had completed several marathons.
In 2012, his marriage survived the emergence of photos showing him kissing his Sky make-up artist, who was 13 years his junior, in Hyde Park.
In 2017 the newsreader was ‘wiped out’ by a driver while he was cycling.
The accident, which he described as a ‘hit-and-run’, left him with a number of cuts and bruises as well as a damaged bike. He shared the image of his injured face on social media with the caption: ‘This is why I haven’t been on the air for two days.’
