BBC Prom's Clive Myrie's life from family life to near-death experiences
Clive Myrie has been a familiar face on BBC News for years and hailed a ‘hero’ for his recent reporting on the war in Ukraine.
The 58-year-old has been in the country on and off since Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to invade in February 2022.
Landing just hours before the invasion, veteran reporter Clive – who has reported from 80 countries around the world in his long-standing career - shed a tear on live TV over the devastation to come.
He also survived an accident in Kyiv when the car he was in flipped over and dodged a grenade thrown at him by a soldier in the Iraq war.
Although he insists he is no hero and “just doing his job”, Clive has gone above and beyond in the name of journalism, which has won him awards.
Clive Myrie pulled from BBC Ten O'Clock News
Clive has been reporting on the Ukraine war since it started in February 2022 (BBC)In 2000, he was nominated for a BAFTA for his team’s coverage of the Mozambique floods and awarded the Bayeux-Calvados Award for war correspondents for his reporting of ethnic violence in Borneo.
Clive has been named ‘Television Journalist of the Year’ and ‘Network Presenter of the Year’ at the Royal Television Society (RTS) awards.
And the TV star, who also presents BBC quiz shows Mastermind and Celebrity Mastermind, has honorary doctorates from Staffordshire University and the University of Bolton, his hometown.
He was born in August 1964 in Bolton, Lancashire to Jamaican parents who came to the UK in the 1960s.
His mother Lynne was a seamstress who worked for Mary Quant, while his father Norris was a factory worker who made car batteries and carpets.
Clive as a boy with his Jamaican parents and siblings (Twitter)
Clive has worked for the BBC since 1987 (PA)Clive's parents divorced and his dad returned to Jamaica, but his mum Lynne remained in the UK and is very proud of her eldest son.
Speaking about his work, she told the Sunday Times: "When Clive first appeared on television it was exciting for all of us. We wouldn’t miss a programme.
"He’s on so much now that, to be honest, it has worn off. I am proud of what he has achieved but I found it a big worry when he was reporting on wars around the world."
But when he’s not reporting from war zones or reading the news, Clive likes to live a quiet life with his wife of 25 years, Catherine Myrie, an upholsterer and furniture restorer.
The couple met back in 1992 at the launch of a book about Swiss cheeses and Clive revealed it was “love at first sight for me”.
Gary Lineker fumes at BBC after Clive Myrie is pulled from Ten O'Clock News
Six years later, they tied the knot at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Covent Garden in 1998.
Clive with his wife of 25 years, Catherine Myrie (©Alpha Press)At the time Clive, who started working for the BBC in 1987, had just been made the channel’s LA correspondent so they flew to the States before honeymooning on the Maracaibo coast in Venezuela.
Nowadays, Clive and Catherine are back in the UK and are thought to reside in Islington, north London. It is unknown if they have any children as both are fiercely private.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Clive shared the secret to making their marriage last a quarter of a century.
He said: “In the words of Michael Caine, separate bathrooms make a marriage. Figuratively speaking at least. Having a space that’s your own, spending time alone, to bond when reunited. My wife, Catherine, has her own interests. I do too... we each still have our own identities.”
The pair love to travel together - and Clive recently went on his own adventure for the BBC's Clive Myrie's Italian Roadtrip, which airs weekdays at 6.30pm on BBC Two.
Clive is also a fan of jazz music, which he discovered at university, and can play the violin and trumpet, as well as being a keen supporter of Manchester City FC.
And he revealed he cries a lot, as seen from his emotional moments on TV – most recently when reporting on the scandal surrounding his BBC colleague Huw Edwards.
“I cry a lot. I’m a real gusher,” Clive told The Guardian, adding: “There must be something wrong with my tear ducts. Soppy movie? Great injustice? Man City winning? That’s me gone.”
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