Hilary Barry

Hilary Ann Barry(née Pankhurst, born 4 December 1969) is a New Zealand journalist and television personality who currently co-hosts Seven Sharp with Jeremy Wells. She was a newsreader on TV3 for many years and until 2016, presented the 6 pm Newshub show with Mike McRoberts. She also worked on the Paul Henry morning TV show since its launch, reading the news. Barry resigned from these roles in April 2016. Since 2018, she is New Zealand's oldest active TV presenter.

Barry attended Queen Margaret College in Wellington from 1980 to 1987, and was head girl in her final year. She later completed a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics at Victoria University of Wellington and a Certificate of Journalism.

She and husband Mike Barry, a teacher and son of All Black Kevin Barry, have two sons.

Radio

Barry began her career as a reporter for radio 89.3 TODAY FM (now More FM Wairarapa). She read the morning news on radio station More FM and participated in the morning shows for 10 years. On 9 February 2009, Barry became news anchor on the RadioLIVE breakfast show hosted by Marcus Lush.

Television

Barry became a TV3 news reporter in Christchurch in 1993 then moved to Auckland to work as a reporter on 3 News. She presented 3 News on weekends for six years, before presenting the weeknight 3 News. Former regular anchors John Campbell and Carol Hirschfeld moved on to respectively present and produce the 7 pm current affairs show, Campbell Live, in March 2005.

Awards

At the 2006 Qantas Television Awards she was voted Favourite New Zealand Female Personality.

Barry won the Best News or Current Affair Presenter award at the 2011 Aotearoa Film and Television Awards. She hosted The Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park in December 2011. In March 2012, Barry won TV Guide's Best on The Box award for Best Presenter. In May 2012, Barry won the Radio Award for Best Newsreader. In March 2013, she once again won the TV Guide's Best on The Box award for Best Presenter. On 7 April 2015, Barry became news anchor for the morning talk show The Paul Henry Show.

Highlights

On 4 February 2016, Barry laughed uncontrollably during The Paul Henry Show when reading a news item about the former Malaysian diplomat who admitted going to a young woman's home with no pants on and defecating on her step before leaving. The incidentreceived widespread coverage and avideo uploaded by Henry received about 270,000 views on YouTube in two days.

Barry also lost her composure in May 2015 after watching a news story on John Campbell's departure from TV3. As she tried to read the next item, Barry choked up and said: "I think Mike might have to read this one," referring to her co-anchor Mike McRoberts.

Hilary Barry unexpectedly resigned from MediaWorks (thus Newshub and Paul Henry) on 26 April 2016. Barry had been with the company for 23 years, working across several brands. She claims she left in order to spend more time with her family, although there were reports she had been dissatisfied with the direction the network had been taking under the leadership of chief executive Mark Weldon for some time. When Weldon resigned five days later, Barry and co-host Mike McRoberts were seen bringing champagne and beer into the Mediaworks office to celebrate. When entering the building, Barry gave a "v for victory" sign with one of her hands, but declined to comment further. It has since been revealed that Mike McRoberts (Barry's long term 3 News/Newshub co-host) is trying to convince Barry to stay with the company.

Her final day was on Friday, 27 May 2016, receiving a special video tribute from colleague Mike McRoberts.

On Sunday 29 May, it was revealed that Sam Hayes would replace Barry on Newshub at 6. On Monday 30 May, MediaWorks announced that Ingrid Hipkiss would replace Barry on Paul Henry.

On 19 September 2016, Barry and Jack Tame took over as co-hosts of Breakfast. She left in 2018.