Mike Hosking

In 1989, Hosking married Marie Angela Hosking, and, in June 2001, she gave birth to twins Ruby and Bella.

In an interview with North & South in 1990, Hosking described himself as "a money person, I’m a capitalist. I’m to the right of Roger Douglas."

They parted in August 2002.

In 2003, they were involved in a court case against Pacific Magazines, that involved photos taken by tabloid journalist Simon Runting in December 2002 of Marie and her two daughters.

The case in question Hosking v Runting lead to the creation of the tort of privacy in New Zealand common law.

Michael Noel James Hosking IV is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster who has worked for Radio New Zealand and TVNZ and from 2008 has been the weekday breakfast host on Newstalk ZB with "The Mike Hosking Breakfast".

He is a supporter of the centre-right National party and is often openly critical of the Labour-led government.

He has lived and worked as a broadcaster in Wellington, Christchurch and currently resides in Auckland.

The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) has received several complaints against Hosking.

In 2012, Hosking married fellow broadcaster Kate Hawkesby.

She has three children from her previous marriage.

In 2012, Hosking was revealed to have received $48,000 in payments and perks from SkyCity Auckland Casino for doing regular work for them, while still working as presenter for TVNZ.

During controversy over proposed taxpayer subsidies for Sky City building a national convention centre, Hosking wrote in defence of the subsidy, describing the convention centre as an "aspirational investment".

In 2013, he was the master of ceremonies at Prime Minister John Key's state of the nation speech, which he also endorsed.

Hosking rejects the scientific consensus on climate change, stating on Seven Sharp that he doesn't believe in the IPCC report.

In 2015, Hosking was accused of overt political bias by NZ First leader Winston Peters and Labour leader Andrew Little, a claim strongly denied by Hosking and Prime Minister John Key.

In 2016 Andrew Judd, the Mayor of New Plymouth, was unsuccessful with his complaint that Hosking's comments related to a local issue were racist, but in 2017, a complaint by the Māori Party alleging he made misleading comments about who was eligible to enroll in Māori electorates was successful.

In 2016 the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) received complaints about comments by Hosking critical of New Plymouth Mayor Andrew Judd who resigned from office following abuse Judd received for proposing a Māori ward on the local district council.

Complaints referred to racism implicit in Hosking's remarks.

The BSA did not uphold the complaints, noting that the Seven Sharp presenters regularly give their opinion on issues, and the outspoken and opinionated presenting style of Mr Hosking is well known to viewers.

The BSA believed that overall Mr Judd was not unfairly treated and his comments balanced Hosking's view.

During the 2017 election campaign, Hosking was appointed moderator of one of the televised leader debates, and was again accused of political bias by much of the New Zealand public.

This led to a petition for his replacement being widely circulated, and collecting over 75,000 signatures.

Debate host and organisers TVNZ responded that it would not placate the petition signers, and affirmed that it will keep him on as moderator.

Hosking is opposed to Māori wards.

On 23 August 2017, a month before New Zealand's general Parliamentary election, Hosking asserted that only those enrolled in a Māori electorate were able to vote for the Māori Party.

He said “…you can’t vote for the Māori Party because you’re not enrolled in the Māori electorate”.

Members of the Māori Party and the general public criticised his statement as being misleading.

The Māori Party lodged formal complaints with broadcaster TVNZ and the Electoral Commission over Hosking's comments.

Hosking made further comment the following night saying, “The fact that anyone can vote for [the Māori Party] as a list party I automatically assumed we all knew given we have been doing this for 20 years… and it went without saying.

So hopefully that clears all of that up.”

The Māori Party complaint was referred to the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) which upheld the complaint.

The BSA ruled Hosking breached its accuracy standard when he said to his co-presenter, "…you can't vote for the Māori Party because you're not enrolled in the Māori electorate".

The comment was made on 23 August, just under a month out from the 2017 general election.

The BSA found Hosking's comment could have misled voters.

The BSA found that the potential harm caused by this broadcast, in leaving viewers misinformed about their ability to vote for the Māori Party, outweighed the broadcaster's right to freedom of expression.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the BSA also upheld a complaint that Hosking's comments about death rates for Coronavirus breached the Radio Code of Broadcasting Practice.

Hosking grew up in Christchurch, living in the suburbs of St Albans, Mairehau and Linwood, and attending St Albans Primary School, Mairehau Primary School and Linwood High School.

After leaving school at 16, Hosking wrote to Radio Avon and Radio Windy looking for work, and gained a job as a copywriter at Radio Windy.

In November 2020 he was named one of the best dressed men in show business on David Hartnell MNZM's Best Dressed List.