What Is Ainsley Earhardt's Net Worth and Salary?
Ainsley Earhardt is an American broadcast journalist and author who has a net worth of $8 million. Her annual salary at Fox News is $3 million.
Ainsley Earhardt studied at Florida State University with the intent of pursuing a biology degree before transferring to the University of South Carolina. Earhardt decided to study journalism. She finished as the top student in USC's journalism program and went on to work as a local reporter in Columbia. Ainsley became WLTX-News 19's morning and noon anchor and was the top-rated reporter in her market, earning Best Personality of the Year honors from local viewers.
By 2005, she moved to San Antonio, Texas to take a job as an anchor on KENS-TV's morning and noon news shows. Two years later, Earhardt accepted a position with Fox News Channel in New York City, where she has worked ever since. She co-hosts "Fox & Friends," and she has had her own segment, "Ainsley Across America," on "Hannity." Earhardt has appeared on a variety of Fox's programming since joining the network, including the station's "All-American New Year's Eve" special. Ainsley has also published the memoir "The Light Within Me" (2018) and the children's books "Take Heart, My Child: A Mother's Dream" (2016), "Through Your Eyes: My Child's Gift to Me" (2017), and "I'm So Glad You Were Born: Celebrating Who You Are" (2022).
Early Life
Ainsley Earhardt was born Ainsley Hayden Earhardt on September 20, 1976, in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Ainsley is the daughter of Dale and Wayne Earhardt, and she has two siblings, Elise and Trenton. When she was a child, she moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, with her family. Ainsley attended Spring Valley High School, and after graduation, she enrolled at Florida State University. She later transferred to the University of South Carolina, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism in 1999.
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Career
Before graduating from USC, Earhardt landed a job as a reporter with Columbia's local CBS station, WLTX. From 2000 to 2004, Ainsley was the station's morning and noon anchor. After the September 11th attacks, she went to New York City to report on a story about middle school students from South Carolina raising nearly $500,000 for firefighters to replace a fire truck that was destroyed at the World Trade Center site. Earhardt moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 2005, and began anchoring morning and noon weekday newscasts at KENS-TV. She later moved to New York City, where she took a job with Fox News Channel in 2007. Ainsley has said that she "did not know the first thing about politics" before Roger Ailes hired her to work at Fox News. She had a segment on "Hannity" called "Ainsley Across America," and she has served as a co-host on "All-American New Year's Eve," "Fox and Friends Weekend," and "America's News Headquarters" and as a panelist on "Red Eye" and "The Live Desk." In 2016, she became a co-host on "Fox & Friends," and she told "People" magazine, "I have a journalism background, and I want to be on the curvy couch and provide that to the audience, where I'm fair and balanced when I'm telling stories. But I also want to provide fun and entertainment."
During the Trump administration, Earhardt interviewed both the president and vice president. In 2017, she falsely reported that more than five million "illegal immigrants might have voted" in the 2008 presidential election. The following year, Ainsley went viral after she incorrectly stated on "Fox & Friends" that an event that made America great was defeating "communist Japan." Earhardt produced seven episodes of "Fox and Friends" between 2018 and 2021. In 2020, she played herself in the TV movie "Christmas in the Rockies." Ainsley has also appeared on the television programs "On the Record w/ Brit Hume," "Mornings with Maria Bartiromo," "The Kelly File," "The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton," "Tucker Carlson Tonight," "Weekend Night in America with Trey Gowdy," "Gutfeld!," "The 700 Club," "Fox Across America w/ Jimmy Failla," "Takeaways with Kirk Cameron," "Jesse Watters Primetime," and "Outnumbered."
(Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
Personal Life
Ainsley was married to Kevin McKinney from 2005 to 2009. On October 13, 2012, she wed Will Proctor, a former quarterback for Clemson University (the rival of Earhardt's alma mater, the University of South Carolina). They welcomed daughter Hayden Dubose Proctor on November 6, 2015. Ainsley and Will divorced in 2019, and in June 2020, "Vanity Fair" reported that Earhardt had been in a relationship with Sean Hannity, a fellow Fox News personality, since at least August 2019 when they attended a wedding at Trump National Golf Course together. A member of the Fox News staff told the publication that during the COVID-19 pandemic, Earhardt hosted "Fox & Friends" from the basement of Hannity's home on Long Island.
Ainsley is a Christian, and during a 2018 interview with CBN News, she stated, "I'm so excited about what God has done in my life and I love Jesus and I can't hide that. I really believe that if I ever did that I would lose it all. I think God has blessed me because He knew I wasn't going to be afraid and I wasn't going to fear what the rest of the world thought."
Awards
In 2007, Earhardt received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award from the University of South Carolina. The award is given to "a graduate who has excelled in his or her chosen field and is under the age of 40." In 2024, the school presented Ainsley with an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.
