Naga Munchetty, the BBC Breakfast presenter, earned an average of £3,000 a month from outside work in the first half of this year, taking home a total of £18,000 between January and June. Half of that sum came from work for the exclusive members' club Soho House.
The figures were disclosed in the BBC's quarterly register, which publishes the outside earnings of the corporation's top on-air staff from events such as after-dinner speeches, corporate Q&A sessions and award ceremonies. According to the register, Munchetty took on one paid private event a month for Soho House between January and June.
One of the BBC's Highest Earners
Munchetty, 51, is one of the BBC's highest-paid stars, earning between £360,000 and £364,999. She has presented BBC Breakfast for 17 years but will leave the programme at the end of the year.
A Busy Month in June
Munchetty took on two paid engagements in June. She worked as an 'interviewer' for Soho House and was paid up to £5,000, and she appeared as a speaker for the American company Sysco, the world's largest food distributor, for which she was again paid up to £5,000.
In May, she was an interviewer for Women in Film & TV (UK), a members' organisation, and was paid up to £1,000.
Podcast Debate and Manchester Panel
In February, Munchetty led a debate on The PR Network's podcast Just Curious, discussing interviewing techniques, for which she was paid up to £1,000. The podcast's description said Munchetty shared how curiosity, analytical rigour and the discipline of asking the right questions had shaped her interviewing style, and explained why the best journalists knew when to stay silent.
In January she hosted a panel discussion on 'access to the creative industries' at Soho House in Manchester. She was joined on the panel by New Order musician Peter Hook and Soho House chief executive Andrew Carnie, and was paid up to £5,000 for the event.
Book Talk in Dubai
The week before the Manchester event, Munchetty travelled to the Middle East to attend the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Dubai, where she gave a talk on her book, It's Probably Nothing. The book discusses her own experiences with healthcare and what she describes as bias against women in the medical profession.
Tickets for the one-hour show cost £15 each, and Munchetty was paid up to £1,000 for the appearance. It is not known whether her travel and accommodation costs were covered on top of that fee.
Previous Earnings and Charity Work
Last year it was revealed that Munchetty had earned up to £56,000 on top of her BBC salary in 2024, a sum that included up to £10,000 for work with a charity.
Tighter Rules on Outside Work
Rules on moonlighting by BBC presenters were first tightened in 2020, when then-director general Tim Davie introduced a register of presenters' outside earnings as part of a wider crackdown on impartiality concerns. The rules remained unchanged until July, when BBC chairman Samir Shah warned that presenters who leveraged their BBC profile for outside work would now see it "factored into the deal we do" on pay.
Departure From BBC Breakfast
In July, Munchetty announced she was quitting BBC Breakfast after 17 years on the programme, following a reported investigation into her conduct. Last year she was reportedly placed under review after a formal probe into allegations that she had bullied a junior staff member.
Munchetty will become the new co-presenter of Radio 5 Live Breakfast, the station's flagship morning programme, and is due to start in the role in January.
A BBC spokesperson told the Daily Mail: "We publish the external paid-for work of on-air journalists for transparency, and every event is approved in line with our guidelines."
