Lulu Hassan: The ‘receptionist’ who anchors news with her husband
MEDIA personality Lulu Hassan is a woman of admirable reputation. Equally, her rise from a receptionist to a celebrated TV girl is a tale worth sharing.
Lulu and her husband, namely Rashid Abdalla, have set the bar high by co-anchoring the same news bulletin on national television.
They are the first-ever couple to accomplish that feat in Kenya.
In a recent interview with Hot 96, she opened up on how the experience of working with her husband.
“A husband and wife working together is a good thing,” she points out.
“We’re human beings and of course, we get mad at each other but I can’t let our issues get to Saturday at 6 pm when we’re going to the studio. We make sure we solve our issues before then.”
“Working together cements the relationship as you both know this is a job. It’s not that you’re pretending, you just make sure that everything works out.
"Rashid is different, he’s not like me. He can’t let an issue last for more than two hours, he’ll make sure we’ve solved that issue.”
Lulu also remarked that being friends with her husband has played a very big role in their successful marriage and success at work.”
“Marry your friend first, not a wife. When you’re friends you’re able to agree on what and how things should be done and years just go by. We got married in 2009 and I don’t really know how we’ve gotten to 2022. It’s being friends.”
The renowned news anchor further narrated her journey in the media industry and how she started.
“In 2005, I was a receptionist in Mombasa at a company called TechBiz. Whenever I would pick calls, there’s a guy called Anthony, I never knew him, but I remember to date that he told me he loved my voice and asked me if I had ever thought of doing radio or TV. That piqued my interest.”
The mother of three adds that she used to read newspapers to her mother, who also saw potential in her and was, therefore, one of the reasons she ventured into the industry.
Lulu went on to join Standard Group’s KTN aged 20.
“I started doing Kiswahili when an opportunity opened in Standard Group, where two female Kiswahili anchors were going on maternity leave at the time.
"I was then told to seize the opportunity and try, which I was afraid to because it was in Kiswahili but I did and I got the job. I was 20 years old when I joined Standard,” she stated.