The former newsreader Carol Barnes, the face of ITV news for nearly 30 years, was gravely ill in hospital last night after suffering a severe stroke.

Doctors said that she was unlikely to survive as her family, including her 26-year-old son James, rushed to her bedside at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

Barnes, 63, became a household name during her celebrated career at ITN, which included a long stint hosting its flagship programme News at Ten and being named Newscaster of the Year in 1984.

Recently she appeared on television screens to present a documentary about Ed Mitchell, her former co-host, and his battle with alcohol problems. Her last work for ITN included presenting the news on its 24-hour digital channel as well as the financial programme Simply Money.

She has been unconscious in hospital since collapsing at her seaside home in Brighton on Sunday. Late last night a spokesman for Barnes confirmed that she was seriously ill in hospital. “Her son James and her closest friends have asked for her privacy to be respected,” he said.

Barnes enjoyed huge success in her professional career at ITN, where she spent several years reporting before becoming one of the station’s most senior and respected newscasters.

Her personal life was beset by tragedy, however, when her 24-year-old daughter Clare, whose father is the former Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister Denis MacShane, was killed in a parachuting accident in Australia in 2004. Clare, who lived in Australia, died when both her parachutes malfunctioned while she was skydiving with her boyfriend near Melbourne.

Barnes struggled with the loss, saying in 2005 that “a big part of me still doesn’t accept that she’s dead”. Several months later she lost her driving licence and was dismissed as a magistrate when she was caught drink-driving on Brighton’s seafront. While she said the incidents were unrelated, she told of being plunged into depression after losing her daughter.

“There were times when I’d wake up and I didn’t want to get out of bed,” she said. “In the early stages when I wasn’t working I thought, ‘Sod it’, and I’d stay there.”

Barnes began her adult life as a teacher but joined ITN as a reporter in 1975. After she split with Mr MacShane, whom she never married, she married Nigel Thompson, a cameraman. After 17 years together, they separated in 1999. Barnes stopped working for ITV after her daughter’s death.

While she stepped away from television work after the death of her daughter, Barnes was a columnist for several glossy magazines including Absolute London.

She also co-runs Greenwich Village PR, a media-training company. She has worked for other television companies such as Meridian, where she regularly fronted their weekly political programme.

She has chaired a number of conferences, including a government-sponsored summit on age discrimination, and made videos for companies such as Norwich Union, AXA Investments and BAE Systems.

She has made cameo appearances in several films.

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