Naga Munchetty is a very familiar face to many Brits tuned into the BBC Breakfast TV show, which airs every morning on BBC One. The TV presenter and journalist, of Mauritanian and Indian descent, is also known to present regularly for BBC World News and Victoria Derbyshire, having come to prominence on the channel as part of the BBC’s financial affairs programme, today cancelled, Working Lunch .
Read on to find out everything there is to know about his early life, love life, income, and career.
the biography
Naga Munchetty was born Subha Nagalakshmi Munchetty-Chendriah on February 25, 1975 in Streatham, South London, England. Her father, whose name is unknown, is from Mauritius, while her mother, Muthu Chendriah, is Indian. The pair, who both worked as nurses, although his mother was originally a dentist, met as international students in Wales in the 1970s before marrying in marriage.
The family then moved to London where their daughter attended Graveney School in Tooting, London. Much to her parents’ surprise, Munchetty enrolled at the University of Leeds to study English after finishing high school. She has publicly stated that her decision to read English surprised her parents since it was believed that she would rather follow in their footsteps to study something related to medicine.
After graduating, Naga Munchetty was able to land her first job as a reporter for the London Evening Standard, working on its City Pages. During this time, she also worked in the business section of The Observer. After a few years, Munchetty moved from print to television when she was hired as a reporter for Reuters Financial Television. Her career moved up and down in the world of TV and current affairs as she became Senior Producer for CNBC Europe and then Producer and Reporter for Channel 4 News.
In late 2008, after also working as a presenter on Bloomberg Television, Munchetty joined Working Lunch, the BBC’s recently refreshed program focusing on business, personal finance and consumers. She remained on the show until it was canceled in 2010, after which she then presented early morning bulletins on BBC News Channel and BBC World News. She was also a finance reporter in London for BBC News and hosted Radio 4’s Money 4 program.
Where is she now?
In the 2010s, Naga Munchetty became very active in a number of extracurricular activities. She has participated in several semi-professional and amateur golf tournaments, including winning the Hertfordshire de Paula Cup at Bishop’s Stortford Golf Club in 2012. As well as her golf course, she has also participated in the celebrity dance competition, Strictly Come Dancing. Munchetty competed in the show’s fourteenth series where she was only able to last until week four before she and her partner were let go.
As for her work, Munchetty has become a regular presenter on BBC One’s Breakfast programme. In 2016, she replaced Sian Williams as presenter of Sunday Morning Live on BBC One. However, her presence on the show only lasted a year and was replaced by Emma Barnett and Sean Fletcher in 2017. The same year, she and Fletcher co-presented the annual Teachers Awards in the UK, British Classroom Heroes.
Salary Naga Munchetty
Naga Munchetty falls far short of the rankings like Chris Evans, Jeremy Vine and Gary Lineker, who are the BBC’s highest paid employees. That’s not to say, however, that the BBC Breakfast presenter isn’t doing very well as she was reportedly paid between £150,000 and £199,999 by the news channel.
Husband – James Haggar
Naga Munchetty is married to an English actor and director James Haggar. The pair reportedly met at a public event in 2005 and began dating soon after. Their relationship lasted two years before Haggar made the audacity to ask for Munchetty’s hand in marriage. They married in 2007 and have been together ever since.
Munchetty and Haggar don’t have kids yet, but they do have two Siamese cats named Kinky and Ronnie, whom they hold very dear.