| Paul Henry | |
|---|---|
| Born | 4 August 1960 Auckland, New Zealand |
| Occupation | Journalist, TV anchor |
| Ethnicity | Romani |
Paul Henry (born 4 August 1960) is a New Zealand broadcaster. He is both a radio and television presenter. He gained national recognition as the co-host of TVNZ's breakfast television programme Breakfast for 7 years, the 2007-2008 host of the New Zealand version of This Is Your Life and the backup host for current affairs show Close Up.
After numerous controversies on morning talk show Breakfast, Henry was involved in a high profile scandal in October 2010 involving his pronunciation and ridicule of the name of Indian diplomat Sheila Dikshit. The scandal culminated in Henry's resignation from TVNZ and subsequent employment from rival company MediaWorks. Henry is currently working on numerous high profile projects for the company.
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Henry was born in Auckland, New Zealand. His parents separated when he was 11, and in 1971 he moved with his English-born mother to Bristol, United Kingdom, where he finished his education and won a drama school scholarship. Paul and his mother Olive lived in a council flat. Olive worked triple shifts in a plastic bag factory to make ends meet.[1] Henry says that when he was 25 he discovered that his grandmother was a "Gypsy".[1]
Paul Henry started his broadcasting career working for the BBC, as a studio assistant and in the mail room. He worked as a projectionist in the natural history unit, where, according to the Sunday Star Times, “David Attenborough would come in and Henry would play the rushes”. Henry returned to New Zealand when he was 19 and worked as a producer on National Radio.[2]
Henry worked as a breakfast host on 2ZD Radio Wairarapa with a fictitious chook called "Gungadin" from 1986 to 1990.
Henry left 2ZD to set up his own radio station, 'TODAY FM 89.3' in 1991, and worked as the breakfast host along with local identity Rick Long, and former 2ZD station manager John (Johnnie) Shearer. Notable employees of TODAY FM included Hilary Pankurst (now Barry), current co-host of 3 News, and Georgina Beyer, who would later become the world's first openly transsexual mayor and MP. The radio station had a unique local format including morning talkback with Rick Long. Henry hosted the breakfast show with his former manager, John Shearer. The breakfast show gave Henry free licence to shamelessly promote his radio station. His co-host Shearer was often at the receiving end of Henry's jokes. Henry would famously say he doesn't want to hurt his feelings and every morning when Shearer signed off, Henry would warn listeners to "take care on the roads now John Shearer's on the roads". At one time the station even flew a helicopter through the breakfast show with Shearer reporting from the air.
Henry hosted six breakfast shows per week and often worked late at night and right across the weekend at the station, with outside live broadcasts. In 1992, Henry sold the station, which later became HITZ 89FM and now exists as More FM 89.5, 105.5 Wairarapa. For a time there were three radio stations in Wairarapa, TODAY FM, Radio Wairarapa and Radio Pacific. Henry had hosted or co-hosted a breakfast show on each of the stations.
Henry went on to be a foreign correspondent for Radio Pacific and weekend talkback host. Paul Henry presented Radio Pacific's Breakfast - "The Morning Grill" with Arch Tambakis, then Pam Corkery in the mid 1990s. Later he was the drive host on Radio Pacific, then later Radio Live when the station launched in 2005 and again in 2007.
On 1 April 2011, it was announced Paul Henry was taking over the Radio Live Drive show effective July 2011, following him signing with Mediaworks.[3]
Henry co-hosted TVNZ's Breakfast between 2004 and 2010. In 2009, ratings for the show had improved to around 150,000 viewers from a base of around 100,000.
Paul won the People's Choice Award, Best Presenter at the 2010 Qantas NZ Film and Television Awards.[4] His outrageous acceptance speech has attracted more than 100,000 views on YouTube in one day alone.
On 10 October 2010, following Henry's controversial comments about the New Zealand Governor General, Sir Anand Satyanand, and the Delhi chief minister, Sheila Dikshit, TVNZ announced that Henry had resigned.[5][6][7] TVNZ also released a statement that he had resigned.[5][6] Paul Henry was forced to apologise.[8]
In an interview the following month, Henry claimed that TVNZ, in particular chief executive Rick Ellis, had "capitalised" on him by encouraging him to be controversial on-air, adding that he believed it was wrong for the New Zealand Government to apologise to India for his remarks.[9]
On 1 April 2011, MediaWorks New Zealand, rival of TVNZ, announced Henry was rejoining the MediaWorks stable, replacing Maggie Barry on Radio Live, and returning to his drive-time slot.
Henry will also be working across several high profile projects on TV3.[10]
In October 2011 it was announced Henry was to start his own show airing in 2012 every Sunday at 7pm and has the working title The Paul Henry Show.[11] Though it was yet to have a format.
In 2011 Henry published an autobiography,[12] "What Was I Thinking". The book was a bestseller upon release.[13]
Henry is to move to Sydney in early 2012 to take a job as a presenter on Network Ten's morning show Breakfast[14] on 27 February 2012.
Henry ran as the National Party candidate for the Wairarapa electorate in the 1999 general election. He lost to former radio colleague and New Zealand Labour Party candidate Georgina Beyer by a majority of 3,033 votes.[15]
In March 2009, Henry caused offence by pointing out the facial hair of female guest anti-nuclear campaigner and Greenpeace worker Stephanie Mills. TVNZ stated that it had received a "handful" of complaints. Henry stated to the Sunday Star Times: “I certainly have no intention of apologising to people who have written in and complained. The key thing to me is what a fortunate life they must have that they can afford time and energy to complain about such an insignificant thing.”[16]
In August 2009, Henry referred to homosexuals as “unnatural”, prompting a complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Authority, which regulates broadcast radio and television content within New Zealand. In February 2010, the Broadcasting Standards Authority declined to uphold the complaint.[17]
In November 2009, Henry sparked controversy over comments he made about singer Susan Boyle and his on-air use of the term 'retarded' to describe her. His comments led to almost two hundred complaints to the Broadcasting Standards Authority and an apology from Television New Zealand.[18]
In October 2010, Henry was again the subject of complaints, after questioning whether the Governor-General, Sir Anand Satyanand, was "even a New Zealander". He went on to ask "Are you going to choose a New Zealander who looks and sounds like a New Zealander this time ... are we going to go for someone who is more like a New Zealander this time?"[8][19] Sir Anand, who is of Indian descent, was born and raised in Auckland. Henry attracted criticism from public figures including Prime Minister John Key, whom Henry was interviewing when he made the remarks, Labour's leader Phil Goff and New Zealand's race relations commissioner Joris de Bres. Henry later issued a statement of apology for his comments.[8][20] After initially expressing its support for Henry, TVNZ announced the following day that it had suspended the presenter for two weeks without pay.[21]
Following the decision to suspend Henry, it also emerged that TVNZ had continued to promote a recent clip in which Henry referred to New Delhi's chief minister Sheila Dikshit as "the dip shit woman" and "Dick Shit", going on to state that "it's so appropriate, because she's Indian, so she'd be dick-in-shit wouldn't she, do you know what I mean? Walking along the street... it's just so funny."[22] New Zealand Indian Central Association president Paul Singh Bains said the fact that TVNZ was still promoting the clip on its website showed it had "totally lost the plot" and was insensitive to the offence Henry had caused.[23] Following at least four complaints against this video, TVNZ channel removed it from the "Video extras" section of their website.[23] Henry's resignation polarised the New Zealand public, with supporters claiming he was a victim of political correctness, and critics accusing him of pandering to the lowest common denominator.[24]
India summoned New Zealand's high commissioner Rupert Holborow to protest Henry's "racist and bigoted" comments, and Holborow expressed his regret for the deep hurt they had caused.[25]