At 21 years of age, Buttrose married architect Alasdair "Mac" Macdonald and had two children. She was appointed women's editor of the "Telegraph" at just 23 years old. In 1966 she won a racetrack fashion contest run by a rival newspaper, for which the first prize was an overseas trip, including a visit to Expo 67 in Montreal. Buttrose and her husband then stopped in England in 1967 where she worked for a time on the British national magazine "Woman's Own" before giving birth to her first child, a daughter, Kate. It was after her daughter's birth that she received a telegram from Sir Frank Packer, head of Australian Consolidated Press, offering her back her former job as women's editor at the "Telegraph". The family then returned to Australia.