Darren McDonald is an Australian news anchor known for his work on Australia's Seven Network

Seven Network

The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...

 and New Zealand's TV3

TV3 (New Zealand)

TV3 is a New Zealand commercial television network, owned by MediaWorks New Zealand. Launched on 26 November 1989, the first private television network in New Zealand...

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News reading

He was one of Australia's youngest news anchors, first presenting at age 17. He went on to read the news on 11am

11AM (TV series)

11AM was a news magazine program that aired on the Seven Network from 11am AEST to midday from 1975 to 1999.The hour-long news program started in 1975 with Roger Climpson presenting, with a number of high-profile presenters since, including Clive Robertson, Vincent Smith, Paul Lyneham, Kerry...

, and then became the first anchor of Sunrise

Sunrise (TV program)

Sunrise is an Australian breakfast television program, broadcast on the Seven Network. On weekdays the programme follows Seven Early News, and runs from 6am through to 9am.-History:...

 News when it launched to cover the first Gulf War. He later worked at National Nine News

National Nine News

Nine News is the news service of the Australian Nine Network.Nine News's flagship bulletin is the nightly 6:00pm localised bulletin, produced by networked owned-and-operated stations in Sydney , Melbourne , Brisbane and Darwin alongside localised bulletins produced by the WIN-owned Nine Network...

, however his involvement with Network Ten

Network Ten

Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...

 show 'Sex/Life' saw the end of his Australian television career after a distasteful segment which saw him simulate masturbation.

He later became a news reader in New Zealand at TV3

TV3 (New Zealand)

TV3 is a New Zealand commercial television network, owned by MediaWorks New Zealand. Launched on 26 November 1989, the first private television network in New Zealand...

 in the late 1990s.

Drugs issues

At the beginning of 2002 after the police had arrested a lot of people for importing MDMA into New Zealand,and selling methamphetamine, Darren McDonald was arrested. In 2003, he pled guilty to drugs charges relating to MDMA (Ecstasy). He admitted being a drug addict for a number of years, saying he'd spend around $1000 on drugs each week, and that he had even read the news while high on methamphetamine

Methamphetamine

Methamphetamine is a psychostimulant of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of psychoactive drugs...

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