RTE's Katie Hannon's life with husband Andrew and twin daughters, family loss and Kerry upbringing

Katie Hannon is one of the most prominent and public facing journalists in RTÉ News and Current Affairs department.

The Kerry native worked across a number of TV and radio shows in the national broadcaster before landing her own prime time TV show, Upfront with Katie Hannon.

Away from her work in broadcasting, Katie is a mother of twin girls and she is very proud of where she came from, where she first fell in love with chatting and politics.

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Early Life and Education

Katie is from the town of Listowel in County Kerry and graduated from Presentation Secondary School.

She went on to study journalism in the Dublin Institute of Technology in Rathmines and Aungier Street.

Journalism Career

Katie began her career journalism in the print media, working as social diarist and showbiz reporter at the Evening Herald, where she was their political correspondent from 1992 to 1999. From there, she moved to the Irish Examiner for two years from 1999 to 2001, before becoming the political editor for Ireland on Sunday from 2002 to 2004.

It was that year that Katie started her RTE career, when she appeared on an episode of The Panel. Katie began reporting and hosting Prime Time, before landing own RTE Radio shows, The Late Debate and Saturday with Katie Hannon, from 2018 to 2022.

Following the cancellation of Claire Byrne Live, it was announced that Katie would present Upfront with Katie Hannon every Monday night.

She previously told RSVP Magazine: "There are many journalists that I admire but I will single out the late great Mary Raftery.

"Her documentaries States Of Fear and Cardinal Secrets helped me understand the potential of journalism to shine a light in the darkest of places.

"I also put in a lot of shifts as a panellist on Vincent Browne’s radio show when I was a young reporter. The lesson I took away from all those hours of late-night radio was that you need a whiff of jeopardy and a bit of devilment to even the mix."

Family Life At Home

Katie is married to husband Andrew Fitzpatrick and they are parents to twin daughters. The couple welcomed the girls back in 2010, meaning they are now 14 years of age.

She told RSVP Magazine: "It was probably more relief than pride, but I’ll never forget how it felt to see my premature baby girls snuggling up together in their cot at home for the first time after six long weeks in separate incubators in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin."

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Inside Katie Hannon’s family life and RTE career after nearly two decades

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Katie is a very proud mum.

"I had my kids late in life and up to then I worked all the hours possible. Then, I had two premature babies and I took a full year off using every bit of leave that I had,” she previously told the RTE Guide.

"Oh my God, My twins are everything to me, such that I can't even put into words what I get from them. There are times I just want to freeze time and keep them at the age they are at because it seems the perfect age. But I realise then that they are perfect at every age," she told the publication in another interview.

"There are times now I find it hard to believe how tiny they once were during all those days in the special care unit, watching them, worrying about them."

Like many of her colleagues in RTÉ News and Current Affairs, she rarely shares pictures from her personal life on social media.

Family Loss and Being One Of Eight Siblings

Katie comes from family of eight children and her home in Kerry was always full of chat about politics and current affairs. They always watched TV and read the papers together.

“Being from a big family totally knocks the corners off you. My mum Winnie would never let any visit leave the yard without bringing them in for a cup of tea, whether it was a travelling salesman selling socks or the guy from Kerry Co-op picking up the milk," she said.

“My father DJ was big into politics, Fianna Fail, at a time when everyone knew everyone else’s politics. As children, we’d be bundled into the back of the car when he’d be going out canvassing for the next great white hope.

“Questions and answers would never be missed in our house, the news was always on and the newspaper was the Irish press with the Sunday press every Sunday morning. So politics was always in the ether at home.”

Katie’s brother Joe sadly passed away in 1993 after a battle with cancer, aged just 30.

She said: “It left a huge hole in the family. Joe was in his late teens when he was first diagnosed and recovered after treatment. Then he got another type of cancer in his late 20s and that was ultimately that.”