Angela D'Audney

Angela Louise D'Audney (née Cerdan, 26 August 1944 – 6 February 2002) was a New Zealand television news anchor and occasional actress. She became known as New Zealand's “first lady of broadcasting” and was the first woman to regularly anchor nationwide news bulletins on New Zealand television in 1973.

In a career spanning four decades, she presented news regularly for TVNZ until 1997 and occasionally until 2001, when failing health forced her to leave her role at the broadcaster.

Early life She was born Angela Louise Cerdan in London, to a Jewish American mother, Cecile Evelyn Cerdan (née Cohen) and a Spanish father, Ramon Cerdan Pla. She became a naturalised New Zealand citizen in 1956, and married Haddo D'Audney in 1965; they were later divorced. She playing the partner of a sexologist with sexual problems in his own marriage, "I was an actress doing a job, and it would be unfortunate if I lost the goodwill of some viewers because of that."

She led the regional news programme, Look North. D'Audney and her colleagues were dropped from the lineup in 1984, and then hastily rehired. D'Audney turned down a position to return as a reporter. She was replaced by Cathy Campbell and Anita McNaught, commenting "they simply didn't have my breadth of experience, my skills, my track record. I belonged in that chair next to Lindsay Perigo, not them." The show was cancelled shortly afterwards. She is buried in the Jewish section of Waikumete Cemetery.

Legacy After her death, the Angela D'Audney Trust was set up to raise funds for cancer treatment in New Zealand.