Maggie Rulli ’10

It wasn’t supposed to be me reporting the death of Queen Elizabeth. Our network’s heavy hitters on the Queen were both out of town. They told me they were going to cut into all ABC programming happening across the country and come to me first. I just remember standing in the pouring rain, six and a half months pregnant, waiting to go live and having this moment like, you cannot mess this up. I’ll remember that for the rest of my life. 

On one royal tour to Pakistan about five years ago, I found myself on a Royal Air Force plane with Prince William and Princess Kate. We had really bad weather, and were trying to land while experiencing some of the worst turbulence I’ve ever felt in my life. Prince William came to the back of the plane and was joking to calm everyone down.

Working in news makes you appreciate how long ten seconds is. It’s always amazing, the amount of scramble that is happening moments before going on air. If someone’s like, “Oh, you have two minutes until your live shot,” I’m like, I’m going to get a snack and touch up my makeup, because I’m so used to having mere seconds to do something.  

I was on maternity leave during the Women’s World Cup, but I wanted to cover it so badly. ABC was great; they were like, ”Bring your daughter, bring your husband.” I had struggled with how to have my career and my family, so to have this moment of, Wow, it’s all happening, and I’m sharing it with my daughter was really impactful. ◽