BBC star Mishal Husain's busy life off screen as she quits corporation after 27 years

Journalist and presenter Mishal Husain has decided to step down from working at the BBC after 27 years as she lives a busy life away from screens with her husband and three children

Mishal Husain has decided to step away from her illustrious career at the BBC after 27 years.

The presenter, 51, has worked on the Today programme for the past 11 years and joined the corporation in 1998. She will step down from her role in the new year. Announcing her departure, Mishal said: "My time at the BBC has involved many memorable moments, going to places I would never otherwise have seen, witnessing history and being part of live, national conversation on Radio 4.

"I will always be grateful for the opportunities the BBC gave me, and wish the organisation and everyone who is part of it the very best." Mishal started as a BBC producer and became a BBC World News presenter in 2001. She has been a presenter of the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 and also appeared on the BBC News at Six and BBC News at Ten.

Mishal interviewed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle after their 2017 engagement and hosted two election debates for the BBC during the 2024 election campaign. Here is a look at Mishal's life away from screens that is equally as busy...

Upbringing and early career

Mishal started her career at the age of 18 when she spent three months in Pakistan's Islamabad working as a city reporter for The News. Her Pakistani mother worked as a producer for Pakistan Television Corporation, while her father was a urologist. Mishal was born in Northampton but lived abroad in Saudi Arabia for a period in her childhood, where she was educated at the fee-paying British School in Abu Dhabi.

The journalist spent her summers in Pakistan, which gave her a useful grounding of its politics. When the family returned to the UK, Mishal continued her schooling at the independent Cobham Hall School in Kent before winning a place at Cambridge to study law. Her education was rounded off with a master's degree in international and comparative law at the European University Institute in Florence.

Family life

Mishal is married to funds lawyer Meekal Hashmi, having wed in 2003. They share three sons - their eldest is 17 and their twins are 15. She has previously described her husband as "a good human being" who was willing to get stuck in with childcare when their boys were small.

In her 2018 book The Skills, Mishal admitted her work-life balance was easier than most "because I married a man who pulls his weight at home, my children have been blessed with good health, and I have been able to afford childcare". She added: "But with three children, 20 months apart, there was still plenty to grapple with.

"I was filming a documentary in India when all three boys and their father came down with chicken pox, and there was hassle that I unnecessarily brought upon myself: doing the online supermarket shop from Beijing because I realised the house was perilously close to running out of nappies."

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