Born in California, Marlowe holds a B.A. in French from UCLA, a master's in international relations from Oxford, and also spent a year of study at the Sorbonne.

She often reported from Iraq following the 2003 US-led invasion. She worked previously for Time Magazine as their Beirut correspondent, and has been a guest for many other broadcast and print media. For her work she was made Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 2006. ireland.com - The Irish Times - Sat, Jun 24, 2006 - French honour 'Irish Times' journalist

She is a regular contributor to Newstalk 106 in Ireland.