TV presenter Dermot Murnaghan dies aged 68 a year after he revealed he had been diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer

Dermot Murnaghan has died aged 68, a year after announcing he was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer.

The TV presenter died peacefully at his home in north London on Saturday morning, his family said in a statement.

Murnaghan was a familiar face to millions of Britons after working for Channel 4, ITV, BBC and Sky News during a television career spanning more than 35 years.

In 1997, ITV broke the news to its viewers that Princess Diana had died in a car crash in Paris.

Then, more than 25 years later, on 8 September 2022, Queen Elizabeth II appeared on Sky News. Announced the death of Elizabeth.

Murnaghan, who has four children with wife Maria, was also known for presenting the popular quiz show Eggheads for 11 years between 2003 and 2014.

A family statement published on X said: ‘The family would like to thank the medical team who cared for Dermot with great sensitivity and extraordinary compassion throughout his illness.

‘Also for the many goodwill messages he has received over the last year since he was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer and his subsequent campaign to raise awareness of screening programs for the disease.

In 1997, ITV broke the news to its viewers that Princess Diana had died in a car crash in Paris.

Dermot Murnaghan and his wife Maria at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London in 2012. The couple had four children.

‘In accordance with his wishes, the funeral will be a small family ceremony. A memorial service for friends and colleagues will be held at St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street (Journalists’ Church) later this year.

‘His family ask anyone who would like to remember him to consider supporting Prostate Cancer Research UK, Prostate Cancer Research and Hospice North London so others can benefit from the research and care he received.’

The presenter, who left Sky after more than 15 years in 2023, revealed his diagnosis of ‘incurable but not incurable’ prostate cancer on social media site X (formerly Twitter) in June 2025.

He wrote: ‘I have been diagnosed with stage four advanced prostate cancer. I am lucky to have an incredible medical team that cares for me; I cannot thank them enough; “They provide the best care possible with expertise, compassion and sensitivity,” he wrote.

The presenter also urged men to get tested, especially those over 50, those in high-risk groups or those with symptoms.

His call was in line with the Mail’s campaign for a national prostate cancer screening program that could save thousands of lives.

After his diagnosis, he said: ‘Needless to say, my message to all men over 50 who are at high risk or showing symptoms is to get yourself tested and campaign for routine prostate screening on the NHS.

‘Early diagnosis is very important. And remember, this disease can sometimes progress rapidly without obvious symptoms.’

Fittingly, his first television outing after his diagnosis was on Sky News in August 2025.

During the candid conversation, he reiterated his call for better screening programs to save other men from suffering the same fate as him.

Picture: Dermot Murnaghan with his wife and four children Jack, Alice, Molly and Kitty on a family holiday

Dermot Murnaghan with his wife and three eldest children at a screening of the Disney film Atlantis in 2001

Murnaghan was born two weeks after birth in Barnstaple, Devon, on Boxing Day 1957. At the age of four, the teenager underwent eye surgery to correct his strabismus.

Dermot Murnaghan talks about his stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis on BBC in November 2025

Murnaghan was born on Boxing Day 1957 in Barnstaple, Devon, two weeks after his due date.

A fact sheet in the local newspaper revealed that her massive birth weight of 10lb 3oz made her the heaviest baby in the hospital.

At the age of four, the teenager underwent eye surgery to correct strabismus.

Murnaghan’s father, who served as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force, moved the family to his native Northern Ireland when his son was still young.

This meant that Murnaghan grew up in Armagh and then grew up in the town of Holywood, near Belfast, as the Troubles began and grew increasingly worse.

As violence became increasingly common, he passed his 11+ exam and so went to primary school.

“We were only four or five miles from Belfast and you could hear gunfights, bombs exploding in the night and helicopters exploding overhead,” the journalist wrote in the Daily Mail in 2009.

A keen sportsman, Murnaghan made his school’s rugby first team when he was 15 and broke his nose twice while playing the sport.

He went on to study history at the University of Sussex, where he met his wife Maria Keegan.

The couple would marry in 1989 and have daughters Kitty, Molly and Alice, and son Jack.

After completing his undergraduate degree, Murnaghan earned a master’s degree and then began a doctoral program.

However, he chose to give up his doctorate due to his desire to become a journalist.

Instead, Murnaghan took a journalism qualification from City University in London.

Dermot Murnaghan, Queen Elizabeth II Reporting outside Buckingham Palace on the day Elizabeth died, September 8, 2022

Dermot Murnaghan signs off at the end of his final shift at Sky News in 2023

Dermot Murnaghan reads the news on ITV in the 1990s

Dermot Murnaghan launches new show Evening News with ITV colleague Trevor McDonald in 1999

Dermot Murnaghan in a promotional photo for 1990s ITV game show A Seat On The Board

Dermot Murnaghan with Mary Nightingale, co-presenter of the 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, presenters of the company’s 2001 General Election coverage

Dermot Murnaghan is in the hot seat on game show Eggheads, which he hosted from 2003 to 2014

Dermot Murnaghan with Suzi Perry as host of Treasure Hunt

He then began his career as a trainee reporter for local newspapers and joined Channel 4 as a researcher in the late 1980s.

He later became a reporter on the broadcaster’s The Business Programme.

After a brief stay in Switzerland to present the European Business Channel, Mr Murnaghan returned to the UK to host business segments on Channel 4’s new breakfast show The Channel 4 Daily.

In the early 1990s he moved to the BBC’s commercial rival ITV.

In 1994, while filming in 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 first heard the boy’s nanny scream.

‘Then I saw this little face, two or three meters underwater, with bubbles coming out of it.

‘I jumped instinctively. My server team was ready; I didn’t even have time to take off my shoes.’

Murnaghan was at home on the night of Saturday, August 31, 1997, when news broke that Princess Diana had been involved in a serious car accident in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris.

The world’s media were called to work and were on the air for nearly three hours when he was told he had died after attempts to save his life in hospital failed.

Murnaghan was also an avid cyclist. Above: Warming up for an event for Comic Relief in 2022

In 2017, the newsreader was ‘destroyed’ by a motorist while cycling

Speaking on ITV’s Lorraine in 2022, Murnaghan said: ‘I hear the “just read the description, just read that description” voice in my ear that I haven’t heard before.

‘And I calculate, as the audience understands, that we are heading from a serious incident involving the Princess and her entourage to her death. ‘

He told viewers: ‘We have received reports from Paris that Diana, Princess of Wales has died in a car crash and her partner Dodi Fayed has also been killed.’

Following a successful stint at ITV, Murnaghan moved to the BBC and joined the presenting team of BBC Breakfast in 2002.

He and Natasha Kaplinsky formed a popular presenting duo.

Murnaghan returned to commercial broadcasting with Sky News in 2007.

It remained there until its final show almost 16 years later.

Away from the news, Murnaghan also presented the true crime documentary series Killer Britain and the podcast Legends of News.

Outside of his work, Murnaghan was a passionate cyclist and runner and had completed many marathons.

His marriage was saved in 2012 when photos emerged of him kissing Sky’s make-up artist, who was 13 years his junior, in Hyde Park.

In 2017, the presenter was ‘destroyed’ by a motorist while cycling.

The accident, which he described as a ‘hit and run’, left him with numerous cuts and bruises, as well as damage to his bike. He shared a photo of his injured face on social media with the caption: “This is why I haven’t been on air for two days.”