After school Böttinger studied German language and history at the University of Bonn. In 1985 she began as journalist at Westdeutscher Rundfunk. She worked for television programme Aktuelle Stunde. As television presenter she worked during 1990s and 2000s in different programmes, for example Hier und Heute, Parlazzo and B. trifft. Böttinger lives as an open homosexual in Cologne and in the Eifel .