Diane Sawyer

A former member of U.S President Richard Nixon’s White House staff and present anchor of ABC News’s night flagship program “ABC World News”, Lila Diane Sawyer is an eminent name in the list of proficient female TV journalist till date. Journalist, newscaster and screenwriter, Diane has interviewed illustrious personalities and thus with a huge salary and net worth of about $60 million was frequently selected for the annual Forbes magazine’s “List of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women”. With a thriving career in the palm of her hands, Diane Sawyer has shown the world that she is undeniably the woman to watch and be inspired by.

Early Life And Education Of Diane Sawyer

Born on December 22 1945 in Glasgow, Kentucky, Diane is the daughter of Jean W. Sawyer ( elementary school teacher) and Erbon Powers “Tom” Sawyer ( a judge) who soon rose to local prominence as a Republican politician and community leader and was Kentucky’s Jefferson County Judge/Executive but soon he died in a car accident on Louisville’s Interstate 64 in 1969 .E.P.”Tom” Sawyer State Park, located in the Frey’s Hill area of Louisville which was named in his honor.

Diane went to Seneca High School in the Buechel area of Louisville where she served as an editor in chief for her school newspaper called the Arrow, which clearly represented her artistic traits. In 1963 while in her senior year of high school, Diane won first place in annual national America’s Junior Miss scholarship pageant as a representative from the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Diane’s essay comparing the music of the North and the South during the Civil War won the first place. During the period of 1962 to 1965, Diane traveled around America to promote Coca-Cola Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair as America’s Junior Miss. Diane received her Bachelor of arts degree with a major in English from Wellesley College in 1967.

Diane was also a member of the Wellesley College Blue Notes, an a cappella-singing group, and Phi Sigma Lecture Society. After attending one semester of law school at the University of Louisville, Diane made up her mind and turned herself in for journalism.

Diane Sawyer's Career

Soon after graduation, Diane was employed as a weather forecaster for the WLKY-TV news in Louisville. Diane found the weather forecaster job boring so to spice it up she would occasionally add quotes. Finally, Diane dug her way up to the post of a general a s signment.

Later in 1970, Diane decided to move to Washington D.C. and when she was unable to find her desired job as a broadcast journalist, she moved on and interviewed for positions in government offices.

Fortunately, Diane became an a s sistant to Jerry Warren who was the White House deputy press secretary. To begin with, Diane wrote press releases and soon graduated to various tasks which included drafting some of President Richard Nixon’s public statement.

Not more than a few months had gone when Diane was made the administrative a s sistant to White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler and eventually to staff a s sistant for U.S. President Richard Nixon for which she is noted till date.

Diane continued in the course of Nixon’s resignation in 1974 and worked on the Nixon-Ford transition team from 1974 to 1975. After that, she left with Nixon to California and a s sisted him to write his memoirs which were published later in 1978.

At the time she was closely a s sociated with Nixon and helped him prepare for his famous set of television interviews with journalist David Frost in 1977.

Diane returned to Washington D.C. in 1978 and soon joined CBS News as a general a s signment reporter. Diane was later promoted to a political correspondent in February 1980 and featured on the weekday broadcast of “Morning with Charles Kuralt”.

Diane was soon enough announced as co-anchor on May 13, 1981. the ratings of the show were advanced after her arrival, but later when Kuralt left and Bill Kurtis the ratings decreased and thus Diane asked to be rea s signed.

It was grand for Diane in 1984 when she became the first female correspondent on “60 Minutes”, a CBS News investigation television newsmagazine. Diane worked for five long years with “60 Minutes” and managed to be regularly ranked among the top five most watched in the country.

In the year 1989, Diane moved to ABC News to co-anchor “Primetime Live” newsmagazine. Diane interviewed famous people and her first most notable interview was with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad on June 28, 1990, which was Hussein first interview on Western television in a decade.

Soon on July 25, 1990, as a side effect of the Hussein interview, the U.S Amba s sador to Iraq at the time, April Glaspie was forced to issue an apology to Saddam Hussein which turned into a mess later. Soon again in 1992, Diane had an interview with U.S. President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton after his election to the presidency.

In 1999, Diane returned to morning news as the co-anchor of “Good Morning America”. The a s signment given to her was provisional but her success rate in the position was far more than what was anticipated.

By now Diane was highly thought of and in 1997 was also inducted into the Television hall of fame. From 1998 to 2000, Diane co-anchored ABC’s “20/20” a newsmagazine broadcasted on Wednesdays and Sundays.

In 2000 Diane returned as co-anchor of “Primetime” newsmagazine .in 2005 the show was retiled from original name “Primetime Live” to “Primetime” and Diane left at the end of 2006 when its format changed again, with a sub-series focus.

Diane Sawyer's Net Worth

In 2000 Diane got a Daytime Emmy Award for excellence in Morning programming. Successively in the next year, she was named one of the thirty most powerful women in America by the Ladies’ Home Journal.

Between June 2005 and June 2008, Diane made approximately $12 million solely from entertainment income thus frequently being selected for the annual Forbes Magazine’s List of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. In 2007 Diane yet again received an Emmy award for outstanding news and Doc u mentary program achievement program and segments.

Diane Sawyer's Personal Life 

At present her age is 68, but her enthusiasm for journalism is so high that she does not care about how old she is and is currently an anchor of ABC News’s nightly flagship program “ABC World News”.

In 2012, Diane received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Brown University. Diane is living happily with her husband Mike Nichols whom she married on April 29, 1988. The couple doesn’t have children.

Diane is loved by her viewers and is widely popular in various sites including the wiki. Diane follows the Roman Catholic religion. Recently Diane announced that she will be stepping down as ABC’s evening news anchor, to be replaced by David Muir.