Ainsley Earhardt Biography

Ainsley Hayden Earhardt (born September 20, 1978) is an American correspondent for the Fox News Channel. She provides live news cut-ins at night Monday through Wednesday. Earhardt also reports for FOX's Hannity with her own segment called "Ainsley Across America". Since being at FOX, she has co-hosted Fox and Friends and has been a panelist on The Live Desk. As of March 5, 2012, she began co-hosting Fox & Friends First as part of the rotating lineup at 5 a.m. Eastern Time.

On October 13, 2012, Earhardt married Will Proctor, a former professional football player.

Background

Earhardt grew up in North and South Carolina. Born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, as a young child, her family moved to the Foxcroft area of Charlotte, North Carolina. She attended Sharon Elementary School. Coincidentally, other Fox News on-air correspondents Heather Childers and Anna Kooiman, attended the same elementary school, although at different times and none were classmates of each other. Earhardt's family later moved to the Columbia, South Carolina area, where she graduated from Spring Valley High School in 1995.

After high school, she attended Florida State University on a leadership and academic scholarship, majoring in biology. Earhardt served the student body as a senator in student government. She then transferred to the University of South Carolina after deciding to pursue a degree in journalism. Earhardt has a bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of South Carolina (1999). While in college, she was a member of the Alpha Delta Pi (Beta Epsilon) sorority, inducted into 4 honor societies, won the Caroliniana Creed Award based on character, leadership and personality and was elected to the University's Homecoming Court.

Career

Earhardt graduated as a top student in her program and was hired to work as a reporter for WLTX-News 19, the local CBS station in Columbia, South Carolina before she graduated from USC. From 2000 to 2004. She worked as the morning and noon anchor (both rated #1). Earhardt traveled to New York City to cover South Carolina middle school students donating nearly half a million dollars to firefighters after the September 11 attacks. The money was raised to buy a new fire truck to replace one lost at the World Trade Center site.

In 2005, Earhardt moved to San Antonio, Texas and anchored weekday newscasts of KENS-TV Eyewitness News This Morning (5 AM-7:30 AM) and Eyewitness News at Noon (both #1 rated shows). While living in Texas, she completed the Austin, Texas half-marathon, gone skydiving with the U.S. Army's Golden Knights and at the Air Force Academy and flown in an F-16 with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds.

She moved to New York City and began at Fox News Channel in 2007.

Recognition

In 2007, Earhardt was given the University of South Carolina's Young Alumni Award and named the School of Journalism and Mass Communication's 2007 'Outstanding Young Alumna'. While at WLTX, viewers voted Earhardt "Best Personality of the Year" in Columbia Metropolitan Magazine.