She was born in Florence, Italy as Caterina Irene Elena Maria Imperiali di Francavilla, the daughter of an Italian marquis, the Marchese Demetrio Imperiali di Francavilla and Dorothy Kate Ramsden. She came to Great Britain in 1946 and started her modelling career, which included such publications as Vogue. Catherine also appeared in several 1950s films, the first being Old Mother Riley, Headmistress, (1950) in which she was billed as 'Catherine Carleton' followed by The House in the Square (1951), Not Wanted on Voyage, The Truth About Women, Intent to Kill [with Richard Todd, and (miscredited as 'Catherine Boyl') in Les Carnets de Major Thompson/The Diary of Major Thompson (1955), with Jack Buchanan, filmed in France by American film director Preston Sturges.

In the 1960s she became a television personality regularly appearing on panel games and programmes such as What's My Line? and Juke Box Jury. Katie was the presenter for the 1960, 1963, 1968 and 1974 Eurovision Song Contests, all hosted in England. According to author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor's The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History, Boyle hosted the 1974 contest minus her underwear, which was cut off from under her satin dress moments before the broadcast began. She also hosted the UK qualifying heat, A Song for Europe, in 1961.

In 1982 she played herself in the BBC radio play The Competition, which told the story of a fictitious international song contest being staged in Bridlington. Katie Boyle was guest of honour at the Eurovision fan club conventions staged in 1988 and 1992.

She appeared at the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest held in Birmingham as a special guest of the BBC. Her other work has included theatre, television (What's Up Dog?) and radio (Katie and Friends). In 2004, Katie was a guest on a special 'Eurovision' themed celebrity version of The Weakest Link on BBC1, hosted by Anne Robinson. In a unique moment, Katie became the first, and to date the only, contestant ever to vote herself off of the programme.

In 1947 she married Richard Bentinck Boyle, 9th Earl of Shannon; the marriage was dissolved in 1955. The same year she married Greville Baylis, a racehorse owner who died in 1976. In 1979 she married theatre impresario Sir Peter Saunders, who died in 2002.

She is also an avid lover of animals, dogs being special to her. She sits on the board of Battersea Dogs Home and is Patron of the Italian Greyhound Rescue Charity. At home, off East Finchley's prestigious Bishop's Avenue, she has two dogs: Cassie (a Collie cross) and Totty (an Italian Greyhound), both of which came from Battersea. In 1989 she recorded an audio cassette with the dog trainer John Fisher entitled Think Dog!

She has also written three books:

• Dear Katie Tips from her days as agony aunt for TV Times, 1975
• What This Katie Did, autobiography 1980
• Battersea Tales Stories of rescues from the Home, 1997

She is an agony aunt for the monthly magazineDogs Today.

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