Reta Ismail Biography
It is often inspiring when a journalist becomes vulnerable about their personal lives. It makes viewers feel seen and a desire to fight on is planted once they see influential people going through what they are also going through. When Reta Ismail opened up about her pregnancy journey, loss, and birth, she had the desire to inspire mothers and those who had gone through pregnancy loss.
She succeeded in her fight and continues to thrive as a mother, journalist, and wife. She works as a multimedia journalist for CTV London. She is passionate about the community, reporting authentic news, and reaching out to the community.
Reta Ismail Age, Family and Husband
Ismail was born in 1986 in Baghdad, Iraq. At 4 years old, Ismail and her family fled their country during the Gulf War. They settled as refugees in Greece. They later moved to Canada in 1993 where she spent her childhood and early adulthood. Right now, Ismail calls London her home. She is a married woman with two children. In 2023, she celebrated 11 years of marriage.
Reta Ismail Education and Career
Constantly running and seeking green pastures for their household made the desire to live a life others deemed normal. Education was the only way she knew out of poverty to a stable lifestyle. She studied at St. Jean and later moved to Mohawk College where she did a diploma in broadcast journalism and communication Media.
As a student, she was actively involved in the school’s journalism activities and societies. She was the News Director for the school C101.5 FM and was awarded the Radio Journalism Award and Mohawk Student Association Appreciation Award.
Working in the school’s radio station, opened her up to the ropes of journalism. She started working at Astral Media as a reporter and anchor on News Talk 610 CKTB. She also assisted in doing weather and Traffic updates.
After 2 years she joined Rogers Communications as a reporter for Brantford Local News. Later, Ismail was promoted to media operations coordinator where she was tasked with media archiving, researching archived media, and responding to requests for footage. After 3 years she moved to Toronto to work as a City News Assignment Editor tasked with monitoring social networking websites, breaking news, and maintaining strong community contacts.
In 2015, Reta moved to CTV, Canada’s largest news outlet. She started as a weekend anchor, weather presenter, and reporter. She worked in this position for 8 years before she was promoted to a news anchor for News at 6.
Serving as an anchor took loads of the time she spent with her family. She made the decision to go back to her passion of working as a reporter and weather specialist. She added that she would be fill-in as an anchor, given the opportunity.
Reta Ismail Pregnancy and Children
Like many other women, Reta Ismail experienced the challenges of getting pregnant and giving birth. Giving birth to her firstborn child, Nero, 13, was normal. The problem started appearing when she was trying to get a second child.
When she got pregnant a second time, Ismail received shocking news when the gynecologist gave her a report that her unborn twins would not make it because their brains and heart were not developing because they were sharing a sack. Ismail and Reta made a painful decision to terminate the pregnancy.
The second pregnancy was also as painful as the previous one. In 2017, Ismail had a pregnancy that lasted for 5 weeks before, and then she miscarried. The events were painful to her and her family.
She opened up about her journey and shared with others her experience. Despite the losses, she got pregnant again in 2018, stuck through the struggle of pregnancy, and attended all sessions with the gynecologist at the end, she delivered a beautiful girl whom she called Adessa Grace. going public with the public made her a guest at the Assyrian Podcast where she shared her journey. She also documented it as a blog on CTV London’s website.
Reta Ismail Success and Salary
Reta Ismail is an open book. She is characterised by vulnerability and leadership. Her desire is to connect with the public and make their voices heard. Her way of giving back to the community is doing reports of ordinary people with the same zeal as doing reports of influential and famous people.
Money is not her main concern for work but she gets something from her passion. We can say that she earns approximately $75,000 per year. Although she has earned fame, Reta is not on Instagram but you can find her on Facebook and X (Formerly Twitter). Bridgett Ellison is another journalist who opened up about her battles with pregnancy.
Ismail’s Summary of Personal Details.
Ethnicity: Brown/Iranian
Nationality: Canadian
Age: 39
Marital Status: Married
Children: 2
Occupation: Journalist
Salary: $75,000
Height: 5 feet and 7 inches
