{"id":576535,"date":"2026-08-22T04:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T04:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/576535\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T04:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T04:28:09","slug":"katie-bradford-on-leaving-tvnz-to-balance-motherhood-and-journalism-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/576535\/","title":{"rendered":"Katie Bradford on leaving TVNZ to balance motherhood and journalism career"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MotherhoodMotherhood was something Katie always imagined. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n

After waiting so long to become a mum, Katie figured those first precious weeks with Micah would be spent cocooned in the blissful newborn bubble she\u2019d always dreamed of. Instead, the new mum faced a frightening health crisis after her little girl\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n

Induced at 39 weeks, Katie endured two and a half days of labour, before undergoing an emergency caesarean section. While her baby girl was healthy and well, the broadcaster started to feel poorly \u2013 and she\u2019d go on to spend three weeks in hospital as doctors tried to determine what was going on.<\/p>\n

Eventually, they discovered an E. coli infection had spread throughout her abdomen, leaving Katie critically ill. Resistant to most antibiotics, the infection sent her vital signs spiralling as doctors prepared to transfer her to intensive care in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n

Looking back, Katie says she was simply too sick to fully comprehend just how serious things had become.<\/p>\n

\"Micah\u2019sMicah\u2019s first few weeks of life were spent inside a hospital room. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember feeling guilty that Micah\u2019s first few weeks of life were spent inside a hospital room. I felt bad we weren\u2019t outside getting fresh air and seeing the world. But I was grateful I could still breastfeed her and that we were together \u2013 that\u2019s what really mattered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally being allowed home remains a sweet memory. <\/p>\n

\u201cI felt so relieved,\u201d she recalls. \u201cWe could get on with life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thankfully, that frightening chapter is now firmly behind her. And these days, Katie\u2019s world revolves around an energetic 3-year-old<\/a> who has completely reshaped her priorities. Where work once came first, now everything is about Micah.<\/p>\n

Weekends are filled with ballet classes, cafe dates, catching up with family and friends, and plenty of dancing around the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s very girly,\u201d laughs Katie. \u201cShe loves handbags, princess dresses and lip gloss, but she also loves dinosaurs and diggers, so it\u2019s a good mix.\u201d<\/p>\n

With such a busy work life, Katie\u2019s grateful to have a supportive group of friends \u2013 many of them also journalists with kids of a similar age \u2013 and close family always willing to step in to lend a hand, including her mum, former Green Party MP Sue.<\/p>\n

But like most working parents, Katie admits balancing her career and family isn\u2019t always easy. Some weeks run smoothly, while others are a little more chaotic.<\/p>\n

\"KatieKatie admits balancing her career and family isn\u2019t always easy. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n

\u201cEither way, I try to make sure Micah understands what\u2019s going on. When she talks about Mummy going to work, I tell her it\u2019s to make a good life for us and to be a role model \u2013 to show her that mums work and women work. She doesn\u2019t quite get it yet, but she will one day.\u201d<\/p>\n

That desire for balance was a major factor in Katie\u2019s decision to leave TVNZ. For 18 months, she tried to juggle life as a 6pm news reporter with a baby at home, often racing from the studio to daycare pick-up, before bringing Micah back to the newsroom, where supportive colleagues would happily hold Micah while Katie presented her live segments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty full-on,\u201d she admits. \u201cIt got to the point where I felt like I was missing so much of her life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The move to Infrastructure NZ offered a chance to slow the pace while still doing meaningful work and Katie enjoyed the challenge of an entirely new role. But after a year, the lure of journalism proved impossible to resist.<\/p>\n

\u201cNews gets in your blood,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"KatieKatie says nothing compares to becoming mum to Micah. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n

Taking up the senior correspondent role at NZME during an election year felt like coming home. Alongside many former colleagues, she\u2019s helping build a new on-screen news brand, combining live broadcasting with longer-form reporting for the Herald, specialising in politics and business. And with the election fast approaching, there are lots of exciting plans in the works.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m absolutely loving it,\u201d she grins. \u201cAfter 20 years in broadcast journalism<\/a>, it\u2019s been nice getting back into writing again as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the hours are more family-friendly, Katie still finds herself opening the laptop after Micah has gone to bed. <\/p>\n

She says, \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s too different to most working parents. I just figure out a way to make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding time for herself is important too. <\/p>\n

\u201cI try to make time to read books, have a massage or just chill out because I need to be healthy and not exhausted in order to give her a good life.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while Katie might not make it to the gym quite as often as she once did, one essential remains. \u201cCoffee gets me through!\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n

For all the career milestones, Katie says nothing compares to becoming mum to Micah.<\/p>\n

Katie enthuses, \u201cShe\u2019s just learnt how to spell her name and she wants to read out every letter she sees. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe loves sitting and reading books on her own, which she definitely gets from me. Seeing the world through her eyes is just so much fun. I feel very, very lucky to have her.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Motherhood was something Katie always imagined. Photo \/ Babiche Martens After waiting so long to become a mum,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[95,46520,1558,198912,1565,9516,2046,40869,96416,16890,5844,113171,22504,6036,42928,2845,1304,2891,111,43,139,69,24393,90,6115,5128,3271,1305,7811,213,223,61,1865,6445],"class_list":["post-576535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-and","tag-balance","tag-been","tag-bradford","tag-bridge","tag-broadcaster","tag-career","tag-dedicated","tag-filling","tag-journalism","tag-journalist","tag-juggle","tag-katie","tag-know","tag-laughs","tag-leaving","tag-morning","tag-motherhood","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nzmes","tag-on","tag-real","tag-ryan","tag-should","tag-show","tag-since","tag-sports","tag-the","tag-to","tag-today","tag-tvnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}