Soledad o'brien family
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O'Brien, Soledad: 1966—: Reporter
Television news anchor Soledad O'Brien generated a flurry of her own news stories after she began appearing on the cable network MSNBC in 1996. Hired as the host of its daily technology show, O'Brien and her dramatically exotic looks garnered a slew of fan mail and helped make her one of the news channel's rising stars. O'Brien eventually moved over to the NBC news division, and since 1999 has hosted the weekend edition of the Today show. Her fan base remains a dedicated one: Peter Brown, O'Brien's onetime boss at a Boston television station, praised her in an interview with San Francisco Chronicle writer Sylvia Rubin. "She's smart, a quick learner and proves that a really nice person can finish first," Brown effused.
Long Island Childhood
The future news star was born in 1966 and named Maria de la Soledad O'Brien. One of six children of her schoolteacher mother, a black Cuban, and Irish-Australian father, a college professor, she was called Solly by her family from an early age. "I consider myself black primarily, and Latina sort of
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During her years as a broadcast journalist, Soledad O'Brien has never backed down from challenges or controversy. As the host of Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien, a syndicated news show owned by Hearst Television, O'Brien has covered everything from the high rate of suicide among veterans to the hurricane relief and recovery efforts in Puerto Rico.
And while she's proud of her mixed heritage—her Australian father is of Irish and Scottish descent and her mother is from Havana, Cuba, of Afro-Cuban descent—she knows what it's like to be different. "Growing up in the only Afro-Cuban family in my town on Long Island may have given me some appreciation for outsiders, for people who look and speak differently," she says.
Her skills as a reporter—her tenacity, determination, and compassion—and her experience as an outsider served her well when her son Jackson began exhibiting troubling behavior as a toddler. "When he was about 2, he would slam his head against the wall until he had bruises, sometimes cuts. Ordinarily he was a very sweet kid, but then he wo
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Soledad O'Brien
For decades, television news remained dominated by white, male faces. But over the last 20 years, American broadcast journalism has increasingly reflected the diversity of the nation itself. Soledad O'Brien, biracial daughter of an Afro-Cuban mother and Australian father, first found fame as one beautiful TV reporter among many. But the Harvard graduate wanted to be taken seriously. From her early career at NBC to her star-making turn on CNN's American Morning, Soledad has exuded a sharp intelligence and a determination to ask the right questions and share the most intriguing stories of her generation. Yet for all her professionalism and promise, Soledad's career in the fickle world of TV news has sometimes met with tragedy and disappointment. The death of colleague David Bloom in Iraq and, later, her sudden firing from CNN's American Morning put her career in a temporary tailspin. Through it all, she has remained a vital media force by taking on special projects that make a difference, including Children of the Stormy Black in America, and Black in America 2.
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