Hilary Kay Biography, Husband, Children, Net Worth, Height, Career

Few faces are as instantly recognizable to Antiques Roadshow fans as the woman behind those statement necklaces, calmly examining a family heirloom with an expert’s authority. Hilary Kay has spent nearly five decades on British television screens as the longest-serving expert on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, and there’s far more to her story than years on air. She’s a pioneer who created an entire auction category, an educator bringing art history to thousands, and a broadcaster whose passion for antiques has inspired generations across two continents.

Date of Birth	December 16, 1956
Age	69 years
Nationality	British, Australian
Zodiac Sign	Sagittarius
Occupation	Antiques Expert, Auctioneer, TV Presenter, Author, Lecturer
Net Worth	$2 million – $5 million
Spouse	Michael Dunning

Biography

Born on December 16, 1956, in the United Kingdom, Hilary Marion Kay grew up in a family of engineers. While most teenagers were obsessing over pop stars, young Hilary was equally fascinated by scientific instruments, clockwork toys, and mechanical devices alongside the usual teenage passions.

Her grandfather played a crucial role in sparking her lifelong obsession. He bequeathed her first antique to her, a James Swift & Son binocular microscope from around 1880, and taught her how to use it. Those childhood visits to auctions with her parents planted a dream: one day, she’d work in the auction business herself.

Interestingly, Kay credits an unlikely source as one of her early influences. The James Bond film Goldfinger, with its iconic Aston Martin DB5, ignited her love for cars. In 2009, she fulfilled that childhood dream by driving the actual DB5 used by Daniel Craig in Casino Royale for a BBC special.

Kay holds dual British and Australian nationality. She was granted Australian citizenship in January 2015 by then Prime Minister Tony Abbott at the National Citizenship Ceremony in Canberra on Australia Day, one of 25 people from 15 countries naturalised that day. “It was one of the most memorable and extraordinary days of my life,” she told reporters, after visiting Australia for more than 30 years before making the move official. In terms of ethnicity, no detail beyond her British nationality and family background of engineers has ever been publicly disclosed.

Hilary Kay’s Career

Kay’s professional journey began at 20, when she joined Spink & Son, a fine art and antique dealer in London. But it was her 1977 move to Sotheby’s that would change everything. She helped establish their newly created Collectors’ Department, landing what she considered a dream job researching and valuing the objects she loved.

What happened next was extraordinary. After just one year, Kay became Head of the Department at age 21, took her first auction, and became Sotheby’s youngest-ever auctioneer. She’d spend 23 years at the prestigious auction house, eventually leaving in 1999 as Senior Director, running several expert departments.

Beyond auctioneering, Kay also created Sotheby’s first expert training programmes and worked extensively with the auction house’s education division, helping shape how the next generation of specialists was trained. During her early years in the Belgravia department, she worked alongside Jon Baddeley, who went on to become managing director of Bonhams Knightsbridge.

Over her decades in the trade, Kay has handled a run of genuine career-defining pieces, from Jimi Hendrix’s Stratocaster guitar to rare tinplate toys by the German maker Märklin, automata by Vichy, and even a film costume worn by Marilyn Monroe. If she could choose one item to see cross the Roadshow table, it would be one of The Beatles’ satin military-style uniforms worn for the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover shoot.

Her most groundbreaking achievement came in 1981, when she devised and held the world’s first dedicated auction of rock-and-roll collectables. Before this, major auction houses sold memorabilia only in manuscript sales. Kay saw the potential for something bigger, and items like Paul McCartney’s childhood piano went under the hammer, launching an entire multi-million-dollar international collecting category.

Beyond that landmark sale, Kay went on to personally advise other rock luminaries on the value of their own archives, work that cemented her reputation as the specialist to call in that corner of the collecting world.

The Elton John collection sale in September 1988 stands as another career highlight. Kay curated this landmark four-day event featuring over 2,000 lots, from the Pinball Wizard boots from Tommy to Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe portrait. The sale generated £4.83 million, roughly $8.2 million, cementing her reputation as an auction powerhouse.

In 1992, she authored “Rock ‘n’ Roll Collectables: An Illustrated History of Rock Memorabilia,” the first textbook ever written on the subject. The rock memorabilia market she pioneered has since matured into an international, multi-million-dollar industry.

Antiques Roadshow and Television Work

Kay was invited to join the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow expert team in 1978, the same year the show launched following a 1977 documentary pilot. That makes her the programme’s longest-serving member, with an incredible 48-year tenure and counting. In those early years, she got to work alongside her childhood hero Arthur Negus, the Roadshow’s founding expert, who she has said was “an inspiration, and became a guide and mentor” during her first seasons on the show.

Working the “Miscellaneous” table, she specialises in mechanical antiques, scientific instruments, clockwork toys, musical boxes, automata, and her beloved rock memorabilia, with objects crossing her table ranging from seventeenth century embroideries to tinplate robots from the 1960s. One of her favorite Roadshow finds came at Chatsworth House in 1996, a tinplate toy Märklin biplane that had belonged to the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire and had survived in almost perfect condition. She’s never taken a significant break, remaining a familiar face to millions of viewers.

Kay has also taken part in invitation-only editions of the show. In 2014, she discussed family treasures with the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at a private Antiques Roadshow held for them at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland. She has also filmed segments alongside current host Fiona Bruce, including a “Basic, Better, Best” game recorded at Compton Verney in Warwickshire.

Her most recent triumph came in December 2024 at Belton House, Lincolnshire. Kay discovered the standard carried in Oliver Cromwell’s funeral procession on November 23, 1658, describing the moment as “radioactive with power.” She called it “the trickiest thing I’ve ever had to value,” placed it at over £25,000, and joked that recovering from the encounter would take “a couple of bars of chocolate and a cup of tea.”

Interestingly, this wasn’t Kay’s first brush with that same object. Back in 2015, she investigated the very same Cromwell relic as an unresolved mystery for the BBC spin-off series Antiques Roadshow Detectives, years before finally confirming and valuing it at Belton House. In a separate episode of that series, she traced the story behind a rare medal tied to an act of wartime bravery.

Beyond the Roadshow, Kay’s television credits are impressive. She presented Brilliantly British, a three-part BBC documentary that aired in 2004, exploring Thomas Chippendale, Josiah Wedgwood, and William Morris. In December 2010, she won Celebrity Mastermind with 36 points, her specialist subject being “The Life and Works of Josiah Wedgwood.”

She appeared in the Vicar of Dibley Comic Relief Special (2005), playing herself in an Antiques Roadshow spoof in which she values a worthless Papa Smurf as “part of the Ming Dynasty.” She was also part of Antiques Inspectors (1999), the BBC show presented by Jill Dando that tragically premiered just days before Dando’s murder. Her other British television and radio credits include 20th Century Roadshow, Going for a Song, Call My Bluff, and The Great Antiques Hunt.

Now 69, Kay shows no signs of slowing down. She was appointed President of The Arts Society effective April 1, 2025, for a five-year term. This volunteer-led organisation connects people with the arts through over 360 local societies across the UK, Europe, and internationally, a significant recognition of her contribution to arts education. In a statement shared by The Arts Society on Instagram, Kay said she was “delighted to see that there is a clear road map for The Arts Society” and was “keen to play a part in helping to achieve these ambitions.”

In 1996, she established Art & Antiques Events, a corporate entertainment company with clients including Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Hilton Hotels, and Santander. The company creates art and antiques-centred entertainment for corporations, cruise lines, and private clients.

Her 2006 theatre show, “Have You Had It Long, Madam? Tales from the Roadshow,” co-created with colleague Paul Atterbury, has toured extensively across the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. She also presents “Antiques Boatshow” masterclasses on ocean liners.

In 2014, Kay launched The Art Institute, an online art history course operating in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and Ireland. She remains a sought-after international speaker, delivering lectures and masterclasses worldwide.

Hilary Kay’s Personal Life

Kay is married to Michael Dunning, a commercial photographer, animator, and amateur sculptor. Dunning holds fellowships with the Royal Photographic Society and has worked for Getty Images for three decades. His impressive client list includes ASDA, Xerox, Marks and Spencer, Nina Ricci, British Airways, Guinness, IBM, and Samsung.

The couple reportedly married in 2001 in the British Virgin Islands, though this hasn’t been officially confirmed. They split their time between Oxfordshire, England, and Avalon in the Sydney area, Australia. Kay and Dunning have kept their personal life private, and there is no public information confirming whether they have children.

Kay is petite in build, estimated at around five feet tall, though she has never confirmed an exact height publicly. She also keeps a notably low profile online. Unlike many television personalities, she does not appear to run a personal Instagram, X, TikTok, or YouTube account, preferring to let her Roadshow appearances and public speaking do the talking.

Away from antiques, Kay’s favorite pastimes are yachts and cars, and she has named a 1957 Corvette as her dream car to own one day. She is also an avid sailor, kayaker, and windsurfer when she gets a break from running her business and touring with the Roadshow, and she spends time travelling to unusual destinations with her photographer husband. She often points to an 1840s Noah’s Ark with 300 hand-carved animals as her best-ever purchase, and to not buying that very same ark years earlier, the first time she spotted it at auction, as her biggest regret.

Kay’s signature eye-catching necklaces have become part of her Antiques Roadshow persona. Viewers have identified pieces, including handmade Murano glass designs by Italian creators Marina and Susanna Sent.

Hilary Kay’s Net Worth

Hilary Kay’s net worth is estimated to fall between $2 million and $5 million. Several fan wikis and celebrity net worth sites list figures as high as $10 million to $12 million, but these numbers appear without any supporting breakdown, so ThrillNG has rebuilt the estimate from her actual, documented income streams instead.

The foundation was her 23 years at Sotheby’s, where she rose from a 21-year-old department head and the firm’s youngest-ever auctioneer to Senior Director by the time she left in 1999, a run of senior auction house salaries few in the industry match. Since then, Art & Antiques Events, the corporate entertainment company she founded in 1996, has built a client roster that includes Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Hilton Hotels, and Santander, giving her a steady consulting and events income for nearly three decades.

Her touring theatre show “Have You Had It Long, Madam?”, her role curating The Art Institute’s online art history course, royalties from her 1992 book on rock memorabilia, and decades of international speaking and lecture fees all add further layers to the estimate. Her long-running BBC Antiques Roadshow role itself is believed to contribute relatively little in direct pay, since Roadshow experts are typically compensated with a modest appearance fee rather than a salary, and the real value of the show lies in the credibility and business it generates for her elsewhere.

Given the range and longevity of these income sources, a net worth in the low millions is a more defensible estimate than the double-digit figures commonly repeated online, though the exact number remains known only to Kay herself.

Frequently Asked Questions

How old is Hilary Kay?

Hilary Kay was born on December 16, 1956, which makes her 69 years old as of 2026. She will turn 70 in December 2026.

Is Hilary Kay still involved with antiques?

Yes. Kay remains an active expert on BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, now in her 48th year with the programme, and she continues to run Art & Antiques Events, curate The Art Institute’s online course, and serve as President of The Arts Society.

Who is Hilary Kay and what is she known for?

Hilary Kay is a British antiques expert, auctioneer, author, and broadcaster best known as the longest-serving expert on BBC’s Antiques Roadshow. She is also credited with creating the world’s first dedicated rock-and-roll memorabilia auction in 1981.

Who is Hilary Kay’s husband?

Hilary Kay is married to Michael Dunning, a commercial photographer and Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society who has worked with Getty Images for three decades. The couple reportedly wed in 2001 in the British Virgin Islands and split their time between Oxfordshire, England, and Avalon, Australia.

Where does Hilary Kay live?

Kay splits her time between Oxfordshire, England, and Avalon, a coastal suburb in the Sydney area of Australia, in keeping with her dual British and Australian citizenship.