Colette Fitzpatrick is one of Ireland's best known newsreaders.
After joining TV3 in 2001, Colette has worked across shows such as Ireland AM and Midweek. These days, she is best known for anchoring Virgin Media News programmes each weekday at 12.30 and 5.30.
Colette also conducts Virgin Media's The Big Interview series, which only airs when topical news stories are developing or when there are general elections or referendums coming up.
Away from her busy work life, Colette is married to husband Niall - who she has often worked with - and together they share two children, Milo and Olivia.
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Early life
Colette is based in Dublin but is originally from Holycross, Thurles, County Tipperary.
As a small child, Colette moved around a lot owing to her father Peter's job as a Garda.
She graduated in Journalism from DIT in Aungier Street and went on begin her broadcasting career in East Coast FM in Wicklow.
Career
Colette is one of the most recognisable newsreaders in the country. She has worked with Virgin Media, formerly TV3, for many years now and anchors their 12.30 and 5.30 weekday bulletins.
The broadcaster previously worked for Today FM before moving to the TV3 newsroom in March 2001. Prior to her current role, Colette read the news on Ireland AM and also stood in to host the show with Mark Cagney, Alan Hughes and Aidan Cooney. She previously presented prime time current affairs show Midweek.
Marriage
Colette is married to Niall McDermott, who is a freelance TV director. They met on a TV3 work night out and married in Tipperary in 2009.
Colette has said that despite working together, they never let their personal life get in the way of their work and they've never gone to work while arguing with each other.
"Well, we've had plenty of arguments, but thankfully they've never spilled over to the next day so we haven't had to go into work on a row. Nor, I can assure you, is Niall whispering sweet nothings in my ear," she told the Irish Independent in 2016.
"In the director's role, they give you basic, straightforward instructions, and most of the time I don't even see him at work because he'll be talking to me from a different room."
Children
Colette and Niall share two children - son Milo and daughter Olivia.
Eldest child Milo was born on 18 November 2010, but it was a nightmare birth as chronicled by Colette herself.
She hit the headlines back in 2010 when she told of how she was left waiting on a trolley in a corridor due to over-crowding - despite having forked out €4,000 on health insurance - when her waters broke, describing it as an "undignified" experience.
Because of this, she decided to go private when giving birth to Olivia in 2012.
Colette is rarely seen in public with her children and doesn't share photos of them online.
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