Overview
- In new interviews, the longtime Punkt 12 presenter says she began a relationship with then-RTL manager Hans Mahr when she was a young journalist.
- The pair kept the romance secret at first, and coworkers learned of it from media reports, which she says fueled mistrust at work.
- After a temporary separation around late 2021 into 2022, they reconciled and married in August 2025 in Austria with only their children present.
- Burkard, who has fronted RTL’s midday magazine since 1997, describes blending a patchwork family that includes their two daughters and Mahr’s three sons.
- She also reflects on growing up in a Westerwald pub, living with tinnitus from a past car accident, and no longer worrying about criticism of her lisp.