Career
Born in Bangor, County Down, she trained as a newspaper journalist in Northern Ireland, then joined British Broadcasting Corporation Television and Radio in Belfast, before moving to Ulster Television and then ITN in London. She joined Sky News at its launch in 1989, as Ireland correspondent, remaining for two years before going to Tokyo as News Editor for Asia for Reuters Television. After two years in Asia, she spent a year in Frankfurt, Germany, for Reuters Television before being appointed Washington Correspondent for GMTV at its launch in 1993.
In 1996 she returned to London joining the British Broadcasting Corporation"s international news channel British Broadcasting Corporation World.
She was the duty presenter in the early hours of 31 August 1997 when news broke of the car crash of Diana, Princess of Wales. Although she was soon replaced by the channel"s senior presenter Nik Gowing, she continued to give updates on the story throughout the night.
She can be seen in this role in the 2006 feature film The Queen. In November 1997 she joined British Broadcasting Corporation News (then British Broadcasting Corporation News 24) as one of the launch presenters.
Since then she has presented various timeslots on the channel, including a period in the afternoon slot alongside Matthew Amroliwala and Chris Eakin, before being shifted to Sunday afternoons in April 2006.
She has since also taken on the Saturday and Monday morning slots and the Friday afternoon slot as well as also regularly covering other shifts on the channel. Mawhinney also appears on the British Broadcasting Corporation News at One weekend lunchtime bulletins as part of her weekend shifts. In the past she has also presented British Broadcasting Corporation Breakfast and the British Broadcasting Corporation One O"Clock News.
She currently presents from 1400-1830 on Saturdays or Sundays and sometimes Monday or Friday afternoons.
Mawhinney is married with two daughters. She was diagnosed with cancer in early 2014 after a holiday to Australia.
She underwent radiotherapy and was back in the studio in March 2014.
