Maxine joined BBC News 24 after a long and varied career in journalism. She trained as a newspaper journalist in Northern Ireland, then joined BBC Television and Radio in Belfast before moving to Ulster Television and then ITN in London.

Maxine Mawhinney is a newsreader on the BBC's 24 hour rolling news channel BBC News 24.

She trained as a newspaper journalist in Northern Ireland, then joined BBC Television and Radio in Belfast, before moving to Ulster Television and then ITN in London.

She joined Sky News at its launch in 1998, as Ireland correspondent, remaining for two years before going to Tokyo as News Editor for Asia for Reuters Television.

After two years in Asia, she spent a year in Frankfurt, Germany, for Reuters Television before being appointed Washington Correspondent for GMTV at its launch in 1992.

In 1996 she returned to London joining the BBC's international news channel BBC World. She was the duty presenter in the early hours of 31 August 1997 when news broke of the car crash of Diana, Princess of Wales. Although she was soon replaced as anchor, by the channels senior presenter Nik Gowing, she continued to give updates on the story throughout the night. She can be seen in this role in the 2006 feature film The Queen (film).

In November 1997 she joined BBC News 24 as one of the launch presenters. She has worked various shifts throughout the day, including a period in the afternoon slot alongside Matthew Amroliwala, before being shifted to Sunday afternoons in April 2006. She also covers other shifts, often appearing on Saturday mornings and Friday afternoons. She also appears on the BBC's network (BBC ONE) bulletins, recently on Saturday lunchtime updates, but also in the past presenting BBC Breakfast at the weekend and the BBC One O'Clock News.

Maxine is married with two daughters.