[3] She had wanted to become a reading teacher for young nursery children,[4] but she became interested in journalism after listening to radio bulletins.

[6] She began her professional career conducting the half an hour local news broadcast for the local Irun television station Gipuzkoa Telebista Txingudi [es] from 1997 to 2000,[1][7] which she conducted in Basque, French and Spanish,[8] and she also worked for Agence France-Presse as well as Onda Cero in Granada and Pamplona.

[8][9] In October 2000, Maldonado joined the Basque Country version of the broadcaster Antena 3 as a presenter of the news in the region, taking over from journalist Francisco Blanco Argibay.

[16] In July 2017, she signed a contract to leave Antena 3 and join the local Madrid television broadcaster Telemadrid.

Maldonado requested an leave of absence before she began presenting the afternoon news bulletin Telenoticias 1 [es] from that September.

[17][7] She was impressed with the direction the news director Jon Ariztimuño wanted to take Telemadrid to and she began her role on 18 September alongside Diego Losada [es].