An emotional interview and divided viewers
At the Aye Write festival event in Glasgow University's GUU Debating Chamber, Herald editor Catherine Salmond asked Kuenssberg how she had interpreted Sturgeon's emotional response. Salmond cited viewers' reactions recounted in the book: some believed and admired Sturgeon, while others dismissed her tears as an Oscar-worthy performance.
"I don't know," Kuenssberg replied when asked whether she believed Sturgeon. She cautioned that even close observation has limits, saying "none of us can actually get inside anybody's head". But she believed Sturgeon was convinced by her own argument and had shown genuine emotion at points during the interview.
"I felt I could really see that it was difficult for her and that absolutely seems genuine to me," she said. Such visible distress was unusual in her experience of interviewing politicians.
Discussing the case's effect on Sturgeon, Kuenssberg said: "I think she would say it's been a sort of trauma for her, this whole experience. She's a different person now."
The interview aired on May 31, 2026, on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. Sturgeon said she felt she was "serving a sentence for a crime I did not commit" and rejected calls to apologize for her former husband's crimes.
"I am not responsible for the crimes that my former husband committed and I'm not going to apologise for somebody else's crimes," Sturgeon told the BBC.
Murrell's conviction and sentence
Peter Murrell, Sturgeon's estranged husband and the SNP's former chief executive, admitted taking £400,310.65 from the party between 2010 and 2022. On June 23, 2026, the High Court in Edinburgh sentenced him to five years and three months in prison.
His sentence was backdated to May 25, 2026, the day he pleaded guilty and was remanded in custody. BBC News reported that Lord Young, the sentencing judge, said Murrell would have received seven years without the guilty plea.
The largest single purchase was a luxury motorhome costing £124,550, which Murrell bought in 2020 using only SNP money. According to BBC News, it had been driven just four miles when police seized it three years later.
Politics, impartiality and life behind the interviews
Kuenssberg, who became the BBC's first female political editor in 2015 and remained in the role until 2022, now hosts its flagship political interview program, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. The Glasgow discussion also covered the pressures of political reporting and her nerves at her first Donald Trump press conference, when she felt sick.
Asked later whether the BBC should rethink its impartiality toward Trump, she rejected the suggestion: "I don't think we should ever break from that impartiality."
On Prime Minister Andy Burnham's prospects of remaining in office, Kuenssberg said a judgment would be premature, although he had passed the three-month test.
A quick-fire round moved from politics to personal tastes. She named the Pope, for a conversation about AI, or Daniel Craig as the person she would most like to interview. Theresa May was her choice for worst interview: "It was never fun for either of us."
Her teenage crush was A-ha's Morten Harket, and she named wine and crisps as her guilty pleasure. Asked which prime minister she would invite to tea, she chose Gordon Brown, adding: "I'd make him lasagne."
Kuenssberg also encouraged an aspiring political journalist whose tutor had told her to be more confident. "Well, you've just asked me a question in front of 500 people," she told the student, before inviting her to get in touch.
Pay Attention was published on November 5, 2026, according to Hachette UK. The Corsair title is priced at £22.
