Monika Richardson shares memories of her friendship with Katarzyna Dowbor. Surprising confessions

Monika Richardson and Katarzyna Dowbor met for the first time 28 years ago at TVP. Richardson, as the daughter of Barbara Trzeciak-Pietkiewicz, the long-time director of TVP2, joined the team of Dwójka at the age of 23, from the very beginning acting as host, author and co-author of such programmes as “Cults of Pop Culture”, “Europeans”, “Open Zone” or “Hello, Europe”. She reached the peak of her career and popularity by hosting the programme ‘Europa da się lubić’.

Monika Richardson and Katarzyna Dowbor have been friends for almost 30 years.

As she herself confesses, the beginnings of her career in TVP were not the easiest. She was met with distrust and her approach to work, focused on developing her career, did not win her any sympathy. As she recalled in an interview with Super Express, other female presenters referred to her as a ‘little piranha’. Whether Katarzyna Dowbor also used this term, Richardson did not reveal, but in an interview with Jastrząb Post she admitted that the beginnings of their collaboration were complicated. Looking back, however, she is prepared to admit that some of the blame lies with her:

We have always been work colleagues. Kaśka is a bit older than me, so she had a lot more experience when I was starting out, and she gave me a lot of valuable advice. Of course, she was angry with me more than once. At first she was angry that I had come along at all, because why would she need such a young person, and then she thought certain things could have been different. But I was young and career-minded, so I couldn’t understand it.

Monika Richardson full of admiration for Katarzyna Dowbor

Over time, a real affection developed between Richardson and Dowbor, and now Monika expresses great admiration for Katarzyna. Describing their relationship she says:

Wonderful. Wonderful. I can’t say more because it involves members of her family who haven’t given permission for me to talk about them. I have always loved Kaśka. As the saying goes – where there’s strength there’s tension, so we exchange various comments with each other from time to time, both online and in person. Kaśka is a fantastic journalist and presenter. She has been a role model for me for years and I adore her.

Richardson refers to Dowbor’s dismissal

Monika admits that things became a bit complicated after she learned of Dowbor’s parting of ways with the Our New Home programme. Her enthusiastic words about Catherine were misunderstood. Richardson explains:

I think this is just plain nonsense. Someone accused me of having something against Ela Romanowska. Nothing could be further from the truth – I have nothing against her. We know each other too little. What I wrote on my social media profile and commented on Kasia’s dismissal from the show was just about not acting like that. You don’t take away a format from a person who has proven themselves on a programme and is remembered, recognised and loved by the audience. You don’t change a horse in the middle of a race. This was a mistake.