Katrina Lee
Occupations
  • executive director
  • senior lecturer
  • television presenter
  • journalist
Years active1978
EmployerRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney
Known forbeing a Logie Award winning television presenter
TelevisionTen Eyewitness News, Good Afternoon Australia, Page One, Public Eye, Holiday, Review
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1976; died 2014)​

Katrina Lee is an Australian executive director and former television news presenter.

Lee is perhaps best known for her association with Network Ten where she was a Logie Award-winning news presenter at TEN-10 in Sydney from the 1970's to the 1990's.[1]

Career

Television career

After beginning her career as a newspaper journalist at The Daily Telegraph in the 1970's, Lee joined TEN-10.[2]

Lee was appointed as co-presenter of Ten Eyewitness News in 1978.[3] Her appointment came just months after the Australian Broadcasting Commission attracted widespread attention by appointing Margaret Throsby as an ABC News presenter on ABC TV.[4] Although Melody Iliffe is considered to be Australia's first female news presenter when she read the news on Brisbane's QTQ-9 in the 1960's, Throsby and Lee are now regarded as being part of a pioneering group of women who became the first women to read television news bulletins in Australia.[5] Throughout her time reading the news at Ten, Lee was paired with John Bailey, Tim Webster, Ron Wilson and John Mangos.[6][7][8]

In late 1984, Lee commenced co-hosted a national daytime program called Good Afternoon Australia with Gordon Elliott.[9] The program was launched by Ten over the summer period in an attempt to lure viewers across from the Nine Network following the end of their popular daytime show The Mike Walsh Show.[9] In February 1985, Ten's show was retitled After Noon as it attempted to rival Nine's new Midday program, hosted by Ray Martin.[9] Ten's After Noon was axed soon after, unable to compete with Midday.[9]

In 1985 Lee was part of one of the first television crews to travel to Ethiopia to cover the famine and in 1986 she co-hosted Ten's coverage of the wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson with Gordon Elliott and James Whitaker.[10][11]

In 1988, was a part of a new current affairs show on Ten called Page One, which covered events from Australia and around the world.[10] Lee's fellow reporters included Chris Masters, Maxine McKew, Kerry O'Brien, Jill Singer and Brad Robinson.[10] After Page One was axed in 1989, Lee was retained as part of the reporting team for Public Eye - Ten's new current affairs program which incorporated most of the reporting and production staff from Page One.[12]

In 1991, Lee joined the ABC where she became a reporter for national travel show Holiday. Her fellow Holiday reporters included Eric Campbell and Bob La Castra.[13] Lee also hosted the ABC's national Sunday afternoon Review arts and culture program.[14]

In late 1991 Lee was back at Ten, reading the news alongside John Mangos.[8] She also presenting a special for Ten called Russia in Crisis.[15]

Later career

After leaving television, Lee became a senior lecturer in journalism.[5]

Lee appeared on a 2007 episode of the Seven Network's Where Are They Now? program alongside fellow notable news presenters James Dibble, Roger Climpson, David Johnston, Margaret Throsby and Jennifer Keyte where they discussed their respective careers.[5][16]

Lee then became the director of communications and then executive advisor at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.[17][18]

In this role, she was vocal in her support of George Pell who had been accused of sexual abuse, and defensive of the way the Catholic Church was dealing with sexual abuse allegations.[19][17] Her support of Pell attracted criticism from families of alleged child sexual abuse victims.[20]

Lee supported Pell as he stood trial in August 2018 after he pleaded not guilty to five historical child sexual abuse charges.[21] In December 2018, Pell was found guilty by a jury of all charges but his convictions were subsequently overturned and quashed by the High Court of Australia in April 2020 and he was released from prison.[22]

Awards

Lee received Logie Awards for Most Popular Female (New South Wales) in 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983.[1]

Personal life

Lee married Harry Potter in 1976 when they were both journalists at The Daily Telegraph.[2] They then worked together at Ten, with Potter becoming the station's crime reporter.[2] Potter retired in 2010, five years after he was diagnosed with bowel cancer.[23] He died in 2014 and Lee delivered the first reading at his funeral mass held at St Mary's Cathedral.[24]

References

  1. 1 2 Bayley, Andrew (4 April 2015). "TEN10… Sex and the Seventies". Television.AU. Retrieved 3 January 2023. Lee would go on to become TEN's biggest news ratings drawcard, winning four Logies for her popularity with Sydney viewers, and would continue to read the news for the channel on and off for around 15 years.
  2. 1 2 3 "A character in journalism and the real world". The Sydney Morning Herald. 14 May 2014. Retrieved 3 January 2023. He married a Daily Telegraph colleague, Katrina Lee, in 1976 and within two years they were the Ten Network's power couple. She anchored the Eyewitness News, he reported crime.
  3. ↑ Bayley, Andrew (2018). "Network Ten". Television.AU. Retrieved 3 January 2023. Popular newsreader Katrina Lee joined the TEN10 news desk in 1978.
  4. ↑ Throsby, Margaret (1 September 2022). "Margaret Throsby reminisces on 55 years at the ABC". ABC Classic. Retrieved 3 September 2022. As soon as I began reading national TV news in 1978, it was as if the commercial networks had been waiting for someone to go first — within months Katrina Lee was appointed as a news anchor at Channel 10, and there was no going back.
  5. 1 2 3 Koch, David; Doyle, Melissa (20 May 2007). "TV newsreaders". Where Are They Now?. Seven Network. Katrina Lee: senior lecturer of journalism
  6. ↑ "Double vision". The Sydney Morning Herald. 28 January 2003. Retrieved 3 January 2023. Back in September 1978, when Sydney's Channel Ten made Katrina Lee and John Bailey joint anchors of its US-inspired one-hour Eyewitness News...
  7. ↑ "Tim Webster: national presenter". Celebrity Speakers. 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2023. From 1982 – 1986 Tim presented Eyewitness News with Katrina Lee and briefly with Ann Sanders before taking Eyewitness News to 5.00pm in 1992 as news presenter with Katrina Lee
  8. 1 2 Bayley, Andrew (31 July 2014). "Ten: rising from receivership". Television.AU. Retrieved 3 January 2023. and in Sydney Katrina Lee and John Mangos fronted the new-look bulletin
  9. 1 2 3 4 Bayley, Andrew (5 April 2015). "TEN10… from Arcade to E Street". Television.AU. Retrieved 3 January 2023. Good Afternoon Australia, hosted by Gordon Elliott and Katrina Lee, ran over the summer of 1984-85. The program became After Noon in February 1985
  10. 1 2 3 Coelli, Andree (23 May 1988). "Page One". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 3 January 2023. The familiar face of Sydney television's Katrina Lee appears on Page One. Lee was co-anchor of Ten's News for eight years and has received a number of awards... In 1985 she led one of the first television crews into Ethiopia to report on the famine
  11. ↑ "Royal wedding". The Times. 18 July 1986. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  12. ↑ "'Public Eye' to open soon". The Canberra Times. 4 July 1989. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  13. ↑ Bayley, Andrew (31 March 2011). "1991: March 23-29". Television.AU. Retrieved 3 January 2023. ABC launches a new travel series Holiday, presented by David De Vos, Eric Campbell, Bob La Castra and former Network Ten newsreader Katrina Lee
  14. ↑ "Review with Katrina Lee". Torres News. 9 August 1991. Retrieved 3 January 2023. Katrina Lee has the answer on Review, ABC-TV's national round-up of the arts, screening this Sunday...
  15. ↑ Bayley, Andrew (30 December 2011). "1991: December 28-January 3". Television.AU. Retrieved 3 January 2023. and Ten has a news special, Russia In Crisis, presented by Sydney newsreader Katrina Lee
  16. ↑ Knox, David (18 May 2007). "Fri / Sat / Sun May 18 / 19 / 20: [Seven/6:30pm] Where Are They Now?". TV Tonight. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  17. 1 2 Lee, Katrina (29 September 2012). "You're wrong, the church takes abuse claims very seriously". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 3 January 2023. Katrina Lee is director of communications for the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.
  18. ↑ "Pell's lawyer accuses researcher of lying". Nine News. 14 March 2018. Retrieved 3 January 2023. He was supported in court by a friend and Katrina Lee, executive advisor for the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.
  19. ↑ Qazi, Basmah (26 February 2019). "Why is 1980s newsreader Katrina Lee standing by George Pell's side?". OverSixty. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  20. ↑ Zwartz, Barney (27 May 2013). "Pell camp 'offensive' in letter reply". The Age. Retrieved 3 January 2023. When Ms Lee replied three years later, on May 9, she praised the cardinal with whom she had worked for years. Mrs Linane replied to Ms Lee, saying she simply could not believe her description of the cardinal.
  21. ↑ Younger, Emma (14 March 2018). "Father had no reason to suspect son had been sexually offended against, committal told". ABC News. Retrieved 3 January 2023. Cardinal Pell took notes throughout Wednesday's hearing and was supported by a friend, Catholic Church official Katrina Lee.
  22. ↑ Davey, Melissa (7 April 2020). "George Pell: Australian cardinal released from jail after high court quashes child sexual abuse conviction". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  23. ↑ Browne, Rachel (5 December 2010). "TV legend focuses on own story now". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  24. ↑ "Legendary Journalist Farewelled at St Mary's Cathedral". Catholic Weekly. 19 May 2014. Retrieved 3 January 2023. Katrina Lee delivers the first reading at the Funeral Mass for her husband
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