TV presenter Joanna Paul-Robie reveals on-air she’s tragically dying of a terminal illness

A popular and beloved TV personality has revealed on-air that she is dying of terminal cancer.

Beloved New Zealand TV presenter Joanna Paul-Robie told viewers on Friday morning that she’s dying from cancer.

Paul-Robie, who is known for reading the news on TV3, told Radio New Zealand she was “unfortunately dying”.

The beloved newsreader announced the news as she received the Icon Award for her work in the creative industries.

The beloved NZ presenter has been a staple on screens for years. Picture: Supplied.

“I was so touched because this award means so much to me, coming from (New Zealand city) Tauranga Moana,” Paul-Robie said.

“But more importantly, because I am, unfortunately, dying — I have terminal cancer — and really to have this award before one posthumously gets it is an even better break.

Paul-Robie didn’t reveal how long she has to live, but added: “I can’t tell you the lightness, the brightness, the feeling of aroha inside me last night.”

Aroha is a Māori word meaning love.

She began her illustrious career at Radio New Zealand, was a newsreader for TV3 and a programmes and production manager at Māori Television.

Paul-Robie worked tirelessly on-screen as a presenter before covering hard-hitting topics and documentaries later on in her career. Photo: Sandra Mu/Getty Images.

Starting out as one of the few wāhine - meaning female - Māori stars on New Zealand’s screens was tough, Robie said.

“The newsroom was really, it was being run by mostly, a pair of middle-class, middle-age white men who had the audacity and the balls to say ‘if it bleeds, it leads’, but these guys, you know, they had never been in a Māori world,” she explained.

The presenter went on to add that she felt as though it was her life’s work to bring together her wāhine Māori side and her work as a presenter.

Back in 2011, during an interview with NZOnScreen, Paul-Robie looked back on over six decades working in the media where she covered world-changing events as they happened.

“I’ve had this great career where I have worked in every part of television both onscreen and off-screen,” she said.

“To be onscreen during the Gulf War when big things happen both here and abroad and to be with a new television station there was no way we could go but up we couldn’t go down because we were already at the bottom.”