George Alagiah Biography
George Maxwell Alagiah is a Sri Lankan Reporter/Correspondent/Anchor working with BBC News in London where he works as a Presenter and Newsreader. He joined the BBC News team in the year 1989. Prior to this, he had worked for about seven years in print journalism with South Magazine.
George Alagiah Date of Birth / Birthday
Alagiah was born on the 22nd of November 1955, in Colombo, Ceylon, Sri Lanka. He is 66 years old as of 2021.
George Alagiah Measurements/Height
He stands an approximate height of 5 feet 7 inches.
George Alagiah Partner/ Wife
He is married to his wife, Frances Robathan whom he considers it a good fortune to have bumped into. The duo met at Durham University. However, he manages to keep information regarding his wife away from the limelight. We will update this information once it’s available to the public.
George Alagiah Kids/Children
Together, the duo are proud parents to their two children whom he prefers to keep information about away from the limelight. We will update this information once it’s available to the public.
George Alagiah Granddaughter
He states that his granddaughter’s birth was nothing but a spiritual experience. Alagiah goes ahead to state that there was seeming to be a powerful thing in a new life entering the world while another which is his was getting compromised. He also states that she was waiting until the arrival of his birthday.
George Alagiah Relatives/ Family
Alagiah was born in Colombo, Ceylon. His parents, Donald Alagiah, an engineer, and Therese were Sri Lankan Tamil.[2] In 1961, his parents moved to Ghana in West Africa. Later on, in the year 2014, he made a return to his grandfather’s original home in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami in order to survey the damage. Unfortunately, their former home had been destroyed but luckily, he was able to recognise an old well where he was playing with his sisters as they were growing up. Unfortunately, the well was unsalvagable.
George Alagiah Schooling/Education
After his parents moved to West Africa, he attended Christ the King International School where he studied for his primary school education. Later on, he joined St. John’s College, which is an independent Roman Catholic School located in Portsmouth, England for his secondary education. Later on, he went on to read politics at Van Mildert College, at Durham University. While there, he also wrote and became an editor of the student newspaper Palatinate and was also a sabbatical officer of Durham Student’s Union.
George Alagiah BBC News London
Alagiah works with the BBC News London team where he serves the station as a Presenter/Newsreader. Since the third of December 2007, he has been working as a presenter for BBC News at Six and was previously working as the main presenter for GMT on BBC World News since the launch of the show on the 1st of February 2010.
Being a specialist in Africa and the developing world, he has been able to interview Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. This is in addition to interviewing President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan.
Among his other documentaries and features include reports on why affirmative action in America is a “Lost Cause,” for the Assignment programme, Saddam Hussin’s genocidal campaign against the Kurds of northern Iraq for the BBC’s Newsnight programme and a report on the last reunion of the veterans of Dunkirk.
George Alagiah Profession
Prior to his role as a presenter for the BBC News, he was working as a Developing World Correspondent based in London. Additionally, he, later on, went to work as a South African correspondent in Johannesburg. Being one of the BBC’s leading foreign correspondents, he was reporting on events ranging from the genocide in Rwanda to the plight of the Marsh Arabs in southern Iraq to the civil wars in Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Liberia.
Previously, he had also worked as a presenter of BBC Four News since its launch in the year 2002. The program is known as World News Today since its relaunching to The World and now to its known name. January of 2003 saw him join the BBC Six O’clock News where he was co-presenting with Sophie Raworth until October of 2005. Additionally, he was also co-presenting alongside Natasha Kaplinsky until the month of October 2007. From the 3rd of December 2007, he has been working as the sole presenter for the Six O’clock News.
Prior to this, he worked as a deputy anchor for BBC One O’Clock News and BBC Nine O’Oclock News from 1999. Since the 3rd of July 2006, he has been working as a presenter for World News Today on BBC World News and BBC Two which was later rebranded on GMT on the 1st of February 2010. He made his last appearance on the programme in the year 2014. Previously, he was a relief presenter on BBC News at Ten where he was presenting mainly on Monday to Thursday when presenters Huw Edwards and Fiona Bruce were unavailable, and BBC News at Ten.
George Alagiah Income
Between the years 2018 and 2019, he was able to earn between £315,000 – £319,999 working as a BBC presenter.
George Alagiah Net Worth
Through Alagiah’s career as a Reporter/Correspondent/Anchor, he has been able to accumulate a net worth that ranges between $1million and $1.5 million.
George Alagiah Awards
Alagiah is an award-winning journalist. The year 2000 saw him win the BAFTA award for his coverage of the Kosovo conflict. Additionally, he has also won numerous awards which include being the overall winner of the Amnesty International UK Media Awards in the year 1994, and Best International Report at the Royal Television Society in the year 1993. In addition, he was appointed Order of the British Empire(OBE) in the year 2008 New Year Honours. Additionally, the year 2010 saw him receive the Outstanding Achievement in Television award at the Asian Awards.
George Alagiah Book
The year 2020 saw him make the debut of his novel The Burning Land. He was then shortlisted for a Society of Author’s award. This book is a “gripping, pacy thriller about corruption and homicide in South Africa.”
George Alagiah Terminal Cancer/George Alagiah Health latest 2021
Alagiah was first diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in the month of April year 2014. He states that he thinks cancer will probably get him to the end but he still feels very lucky. He goes ahead to state that he doesn’t think he is going to be able to get rid of the disease as it is growing slowly. Alagiah stated this during a podcast titled Desperately Seeking Wisdom. However, he still stated that he was able to at least look back at the great good fortune in his life.
In the month of October year 2020, he decided to make an announcement that he was taking a break from TV in order to have treatment after a “further spread of cancer” was discovered. He stated, in June of 2020 that cancer had spread to his lungs, liver and lymph nodes.
When he was asked for a piece of wisdom that he would give, he spoke about the need for people to think more collectively. He stated that he had spent most of his time in Africa, and in South Africa and they have a word known as Ubuntu. This is the idea that he is one is only human if he can recognise the humanity in a fellow human. He went ahead to state that there is a collective notion of life that he thinks the people have lost.
George Alagiah Facebook and Twitter
Alagiah is active on his social media accounts. He has about 47 friends on his Facebook Page and about 68,070 followers on his Twitter account.