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Popular New Zealand TV presenter Joanna Paul-Robbie has revealed she is dying of cancer.
Paul-Robbie, who is known for reading the news on TV3, told Radio New Zealand on Friday that she was “sadly dying”.
The popular newsreader announced the news when she received the Icon Award for her work in the creative industries.
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“I was so touched because this award means so much to me, coming from (the New Zealand city of) Tauranga Moana,” Paul-Robbie said.
“But more importantly, I’m sadly dying – I have terminal cancer – and to actually have this award before one gets it posthumously is an even better break.
“I can’t describe to you the lightness, the brightness, the feeling of aroha in me last night.”
Paul-Robbie reflected on his early career as one of the few Māori on New Zealand television screens.
“The newsroom really was … run mostly by two middle-aged, middle-class white men who had the audacity and the guts to say ‘If it bleeds, it leads,’ but these guys you know have never been in a Maori world “, she said.
Paul-Robbie began his career at Radio New Zealand before becoming a newsreader for TV3 and program and production manager at Māori Television, which he helped set up in 2004.
During a 2011 interview with NZOnScreen, Paul-Robbie talked about the network setup.
“There are a handful of people in the world who have built a television station and put it on the air,” she said.
“There’s only a handful of people in the world who can do that, and even though it nearly broke me in half the day we launched, I thought, ‘dammit, we’ve done it.’
“I think it’s hard for someone like me with an A-type personality to think that now you’ve done your big thing, maybe you should take it easy now.”
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