Ashleigh Banfield Biography

Ashleigh Banfield (born December 29, 1967 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a Canadian-American journalist who works for CNN and hosts the legal news program Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield. She previously hosted Early Start and the 11 a.m. hour of CNN Newsroom.

Professional career

Canada

Banfield began her career in 1988 at CJBN-TV in Kenora, Ontario, and at CKY-TV in Winnipeg later that year. From 1989 to 1992, she anchored the weekend news for CFRN-TV in Edmonton. Banfield then worked at CICT-TV in Calgary, as a producer from 1992"93 and as evening news anchor and business correspondent from 1993-95. Banfield won two Iris Awards in 1994 in the categories of Best News Documentary and Best of Festival.

During her tenure at CICT, Banfield worked as a freelance associate producer for ABC's World News Tonight. She covered the 1991 Bush/Gorbachev Summit in Russia and the 1992 Clinton/Yeltsin Summit in Vancouver.

United States

In early 2000, Banfield was hired by MSNBC. According to The New York Times, she "fit nicely with MSNBC's positioning as the news network of choice for younger viewers" and network executives "also liked her frosted blond hair and trademark Clark Kent-style glasses." Before joining the network, she worked at KDFW-TV in Dallas, where she won an Emmy Award. She also hosted MSNBC Investigates, worked at NBC News, and became a host of HomePage along with Gina Gaston and Mika Brzezinski.

On September 11, 2001, Banfield was reporting from the streets of Manhattan amid a cloud of debris from the collapsing World Trade Center. She was reporting a few blocks north of the site when 7 World Trade Center collapsed behind her. After the initial reporting of the tragedy had ended, Banfield received a promotion, as MSNBC sent her around the world as the producer of a new program, A Region in Conflict. They also launched a heavy ad campaign that centered around Banfield, labeling her, "The One."

During the conflict in Afghanistan, Banfield interviewed Taliban prisoners, and visited a hospital in Kabul. Later entries covered her travels from Jalalabad to Kabul, as well as other experiences in Afghanistan. In Pakistan, she interviewed Father Gregory Rice, a Catholic priest in Pakistan, and an Iraqi woman aiding refugees. After A Region in Conflict, she received the 10pm timeslot with the show Ashleigh Banfield on Location.

In April 2003, in a speech at Kansas State University, Banfield raised concerns regarding media coverage of the conflict in Iraq. She also spoke against "cable news operators who wrap themselves in the American flag and go after a certain target demographic" and specifically named Fox News Channel as an example. The New York Times reported that her speech angered NBC management, who rebuked her and lowered her profile.

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Banfield joined CourtTV (renamed TruTV) in 2005. She was the co-host of the trial coverage show Banfield & Ford: Courtside weekdays from 1 to 3PM ET with Jack Ford. She is the only non-lawyer among Court TV's anchors. She signed on to host celebrity gossip show "Hollywood Heat" in January 2007.

On June 1, 2009, Banfield took over as host of the truTV series Open Court weekdays from 9 to 11 a.m. ET, formerly hosted by Lisa Bloom. Her last major assignment with the network was reporting on the Casey Anthony trial.

Banfield joined CNN in January 2012 as co-anchor with Zoraida Sambolin, of the network's morning show, Early Start. On August 13, 2012, Banfield moved to the 11 a.m. edition of CNN Newsroom in New York each weekday, replacing Kyra Phillips as anchor. On August 6, 2013, it was announced that CNN would rebrand its 11 a.m. hour of CNN Newsroom. With this move, Banfield became able to put her own stamps on the most important legal issues. The new show is called Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield and airs the same time as its predecessor.

Education

• Balmoral Hall School, 1985
• Queen's University, BA (Political Science and French) 1988
• University of British Columbia, (Advanced French) 1992

Personal life

Banfield is known for her "trademark rectangular eyeglasses, the object of countless remarks, pro and con, since her arrival on the national media scene."

In 2004, Banfield married real estate financier Howard Gould, who founded the carbon credit trading company Equator Environmental and is a great-grandson of railroad developer Jay Gould. The couple met in 2002 at Central Park in New York while Banfield was walking her two Westies and Gould was walking his two pugs. The wedding took place aboard a wooden yacht at the Royal Lake of the Woods Yacht Club in Canada.

The couple has two sons, Jay Fischer Gould (born 2005) and Ridley Banfield Gould (born 2007). They reside in Darien, Connecticut. She was also a backup singer for the band The Rusty River Rafters and member of a bar band. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen on October 24, 2008.

Banfield lost two friends in the World Trade Center attacks and sought help for post-traumatic stress disorder.