Laura Ingraham has been a recognizable face at Fox News for several years now. The 60-year-old is somewhat of a polarizing figure on TV, but sheโs certainly been successful when it comes to forging a career in an extremely competitive arena.
But what about her private life? Hereโs all you need to know about the talkshow host.

Laura Ingraham was born June 19, 1963 in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Her upbringing was one of the working class. Lauraโsย father, James Frederick Ingraham III, was a World War II veteran and carwash owner.
Her mother, Anne Caroline Kozak, meanwhile, worked at the local school and later as a waitress.
- Laura Ingrahamโs school life
- Sued at Dartmouth
- Speechwriter work
- Becoming a โpundetteโ
- Laura Ingraham โ Fox News
- Laura Ingraham โ relationships
- Dating history
- Icy relationship
- Laura Ingraham โ breast cancer
- Laura Ingraham โ children
- Laura Ingrahamโs school life
- Sued at Dartmouth
- Speechwriter work
- Becoming a โpundetteโ
- Laura Ingraham โ Fox News
- Laura Ingraham โ relationships
- Dating history
- Icy relationship
- Laura Ingraham โ breast cancer
- Laura Ingraham โ children
Laura Ingrahamโs school life
Ingraham grew up alongside three older brothers. โThey were pretty rough and tumble,โ she explains.
Perhaps surprisingly, she wasnโt politically involved at school, focusing instead on athletics.
In 1981, she graduated from Glastonbury High School and moved on to college. Ingraham attended the private University of Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire for her undergrad. There, she worked as the editor-in-chief of the prestigious conservativeย Dartmouth Reviewย school newspaper. Ingraham became its first female editor, and she sure knew how to stir the pot.
โThe Review took over my life,โ Ingraham told theย Hartford Courantย in 1999.
โHere you had all these โ60s liberals โ who used to be storming administration buildings themselves โ in power at Dartmouth, and they didnโt know what to do with this conservative independent paper. I was sued a couple of times for libel by professors. We ended up on โ60 Minutes.โ It was a real catalyst for political involvement โ and made doing โCrossfireโ look like nothing.โ

During her time with the paper, she sent an undercover reporter into a LGBTQ university organization to report on who was attending, according toย Business Insider.
Sued at Dartmouth
She interviewed people like conservative pundit and politician William Bennett,ย Pat Buchananย and American Spectator editor Emmett Tyrrell. However, her spell at the newspaper would also be one embroiled in scandal.
Ingraham came under fire from aย lawsuitย when the paper was sued for libel by then professor William Cole. Sheโd written an article about his class which said that his class was โthe most outrageous,โ on campus, calling him a โused Brillo pad.โ
โณMr. Cole is black; he alleges that the Review purposely publishes articles โฆ to defame and ridicule blacks,โ Magistrate Jerome Niedermeierย said. โณIn fact, the Review makes no secret of its opposition to many blacks present at Dartmouth.โ
Ingraham didnโt agree at all, calling the lawsuit โabsurdโ.
โณIโm not sure who won but I feel Iโve made a point,โณ she said. โณIt is a tremendous breakthrough for investigative journalism in the classroom.โณ
After the two-year libel suit, Cole and the Dartmouth Review signed a 21-page statement agreeing to end the dispute. In addition, Cole had sought $600,000 in damages. He didnโt receive any money.

Ingraham would also work with conservative activist Gary Bauer as a speechwriter for William Bennett.
Speechwriter work
Following her graduation, she went on to work as a speechwriter in the Reagan administration and the Secretary of Transportation. She later returned to school, earning her Juris Doctor at the University of Virginia School of Law.
Ingraham went on to work as a judicial clerk in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York for Ralph Winter, a well-known and respected federal judge.
Then, she worked for Court Justice Clarence Thomas in United States Supreme Court and also for law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. At the law firm, she worked along Bob Bennett, the brother of William Bennett.
โSheโs a force of nature,โ Bob Bennettย said. โShe was very able, very bright and had a lot of energy. It was also very clear to me that the law was too confining for her. Listen, if she stuck with practicing law, she would have been a tremendous success. But her real interest and skills lay in politics. She had strong opinions and was very effective in how she articulated them. I thought it would be a good match for her.โ
Ingrahamโs career in media started off in the mid-1990s. She had her own show at MSNBC namedย Watch It!.

In 2001, she launchedย the radio programย The Laura Ingraham Show. It was heard on more than 300 stations as well as on XM Satellite Radio. The show was recorded in Washington, D.C, featuring Ingrahamโs views on a wide range of political topics.
She also appeared as a frequent guest host ofย The OโReilly Factorย on Fox News, aย televisionย network she later would return to.
Becoming a โpundetteโ
For Ingraham, the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal was a big thing since it was the start of young conservative women getting airtime as political pundits, known as โpundettesโ, according to theย Los Angeles Times.
She had talents older pundits didnโt like and were afraid of. Unlike others, she didnโt come from a job in journalism.
โShe isย young, sexy and ambitious,โ journalist Eric Altermanย wrote.
โShe argues politics the way lawyers argue cases, as if there can be no possible interpretation other than her own, and what can possibly be the matter with her pathetically out-to-lunch opponent?โ
In 2004ย The Laura Ingraham Showย moved to Talk Radio Network and continued growing. She was rated the No. 5 radio show in the US byย Talkers Magazineย in 2012.
Ingraham also got herself featured on the cover ofย The New York Times Magazineย in 1995 for a story on young conservatives.

Thereafter, Ingraham quickly rose to become one of the most powerful women in the field of political and cultural commentary.
Laura Ingraham โ Fox News
Yet she wanted a bigger platform for her show. In 2008, her wish came true. She got a three-week trial period for the television showย Just Inย on Fox News.
Ingraham announced in 2012 that she was leaving after nearly a decade with the Talk Radio Network. Her popular radio showย The Laura Ingraham Showย moved to the Courtside Entertainment Group as of January, 2013.
At the same time, she also founded the conservative American websiteย LifeZettle.
Then, in October, 2017, she became the host of a new Fox News Channel program,ย The Ingraham Angle. It became an instant success.
In July of 2018,ย the Ingraham Angleย was the third-highest rate cable TV news program in the adultsโ 25-54 demographic among all cable news programs in June of the same year, according toย Variety. It has a whopping 2.6ย millionย viewers.
Besides her work in television and radio, Ingrahamโs also the author of several books. She has written several New York Times bestsellers,ย The Hillary Trap,ย Shut Up & Sing,ย Power to the People, andย The Obama Diaries, among others.
Laura Ingraham โ relationships
Laura Ingrahamโs been involved in several relationships. The well-known political commentator andย talkshow host has dated plenty of prominent men. Sheโs not currently โ and never has been โ married.
Since being in the public eye, many of her relationships have been public. Of course, that meant that gossip was certain to arise.
While studying at Dartmouth, Ingraham met Dinesh DโSouza. He was an exchange student from India and, though other students made fun of him Ingraham and he grew close. He taught her how to write news stories and track down sources. More importantly, though, as mentioned inย Politico, how to stay firm with her principles.
They eventually became a couple and got engaged. Although they never made it through the isle, their relationship as friends would carry on.

DโSouza was described as โpolitical pundit, writer, documentary-film maker, and onetime wunderkind of the intellectual eliteโ inย Vanity Fair.
Dating history
In 2014, DโSouza was sentenced for campaign finance fraud. Ingraham came to his defense, writing a letter to the judge.
โDinesh is simply one of the finest human beings I have ever met,โ Ingraham wrote in herย letter.
โHis generosity of spirit, philanthropy, keen sense of compassion and devotion to country are what I hope my ownย childrenย exhibit when they mature into adults. Until this recent unfortunate chapter, his life has been the quintessential immigrant success story. I understand the facts of his case and that the court takes his plea very seriously. I simply urge, during this sentencing phase, that you consider his life in its totality โ his contributions, humility and compassion.โ
In the 1990s, as Ingrahamโs TV career began to pick up speed, her love life attracted more publicity and attention.
In 2008,ย The New Yorkerย reported that Ingraham dated political pundit Keith Olbermann โbriefly a decade ago.โ Their political views were polar opposite. That, however, wasnโt the reason to why the couple went separate ways, according to Olbermann.
He said: โThere were a few problems. There were a few things that I could see were going to be impediments. Oddly, they were not political things.โ

Over the following years, their political differences sure seemed to be a problem.
Icy relationship
Ingraham suggested that Olbermann had insulted American troops,ย saying:
โI believe MSNBC really needs to bring in a medical team at this pointโฆ I donโt know what happened to him, I really donโt. He didnโt use to be this way.โ
In 2017, Olbermann called her out. He claimed she had โvandalized her ex-boyfriendโsย houseย by stuffing the garden hose through the letter slot.โ
Moving forward, Ingraham reportedly dated former politician and democratic Senator Robert Torricelli in 1999, as well as economist and former president of Harvard University, Lawrence H Summers, in the early 2000s.
Laura Ingraham โ breast cancer
In 2005,ย The Harvard Crimsonย reported that โtabloids were abuzz with rumors of [Lawrenceโs] relationship with conservative radio host Laura Ingrahamโ. However, neither of them have confirmed they were dating.
The same year, Laura Ingraham met and dated entrepreneur James V Reyes. They supposedly met after being set up on a blind date and got engaged in April, 2005.
But just a month later, a tragedy would ultimately end their engagement.
In 2005, Ingraham was diagnosed with an aggressive type of breast-cancer. She was preparing for surgery, and the same day called in to tell her listeners about the diagnosis. At the same time, her wedding plans went by the board.
Following her chemotherapy treatment, the cancer was gone.
โThe coast is clear,โ Ingraham said in an interview withย Talkersย in 2013.
โI try to go on without obsessing about it all that much. It was not a pleasant experience to go through and I treated it like training for a marathon, or writing a law school essay. I powered through it and did not want people to pity me.โ
Laura Ingraham โ children
Laura Ingrahamโs a supporter of domestic and international adoption, which has led to the 60-year-old talkshow host adopting three children.
12 years ago, she adopted her first daughter, Maria, from Guatemala. Ingraham later adopted two more children, Dmitri and Nikolai from Russia. They live together happily in Washington D.C!
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