What Is Pat O'Brien's Net Worth?
Pat O'Brien is an American radio and television personality, actor, and author who has a net worth of $1.5 million. Pat O'Brien spent much of his career at CBS Sports, where he served as a sportscaster from 1981 to 1997. Pat was also an anchor/host on "Access Hollywood" (1997–2004) and "The Insider" (2004–2008). O'Brien covered two Olympic Games for CBS and four for NBC, and he also covered the NBA Finals, Super Bowl, and World Series for CBS. Pat worked for Fox Sports Radio from 2010 to 2013, and he has published the books "Talkin' Sports: A B.S.-er's Guide" (1998) and "I'll Be Back Right After This: My Memoir" (2014). As an actor, Pat has appeared in the films "BASEketball" (1998), "Welcome to Hollywood" (1998), "Dill Scallion" (1999), "Big Fat Liar" (2002), "Pauly Shore Is Dead" (2003), "Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed" (2004), "Jiminy Glick in Lalawood" (2004), and "Wish Man" (2019) and the television series "Murphy Brown" (1995), "The Larry Sanders Show" (1995), "Picket Fences" (1996), "Everybody Loves Raymond" (1997), "Early Edition" (1997), "Arli$$" (2000–2001), "The Bernie Mac Show" (2002), and "The Mindy Project" (2014). He has also lent his voice to the TV shows "The Simpsons" (1999), "God, the Devil and Bob" (2000), "The Twilight Zone" (2002), and "Robot Chicken" (2005).
Early Life
Pat O'Brien was born Patrick John O'Brien on February 14, 1948, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Pat attended Axtell Park Middle School and Washington High School. In 1970, he earned a government degree from the University of South Dakota, where he joined the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. O'Brien then attended Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, graduating with a master's degree in international economics. From 1964 to 1967, Pat was a member of the band Dale Gregory and the Shouters, which led to him being inducted into the South Dakota Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.
Career
Pat began his career in Sioux Falls at KSOO TV-Radio, and after college, he worked at NBC News in Washington, D.C. as a researcher and at "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" as a production assistant. He then became a reporter and anchor at Chicago's WMAQ-TV. O'Brien moved to Los Angeles in 1977, and he won four local Emmy Awards while working for KNXT-TV (which is now known as KCBS-TV). From 1981 to 1997, Pat worked for CBS Sports, where he covered the World Series, Super Bowl, NBA Finals, Olympic Games, and more. He hosted the CBS talk show "Overtime…With Pat O'Brien," which aired for three weeks in 1990, as well as VH1's "Fairway to Heaven" (1996). In the early '90s, Pat regularly appeared on "The NFL Today" alongside Terry Bradshaw, Greg Gumbel, and Lesley Visser. From 1997 to 2004, O'Brien co-hosted "Access Hollywood," first with Giselle Fernandez, then with Nancy O'Dell. In 2004, he began hosting "The Insider," a spin-off of "Entertainment Tonight," and he was fired in 2008.
In 2010, Pat joined Fox Sports Radio, where he co-hosted the "Loose Cannons" show with Vic "The Brick" Jacobs and Steve Hartman. The name was changed to "Primetime on Fox Sports Radio" after Jacobs left the program. O'Brien appeared as himself in the 1998 Trey Parker–Matt Stone comedy "BASEketball," then he co-starred with Frankie Muniz, Amanda Bynes, and Paul Giamatti in 2002's "Big Fat Liar." He guest-starred on "Murphy Brown" (1995), "The Larry Sanders Show" (1995), "Picket Fences" (1996), "Everybody Loves Raymond" (1997), "Early Edition" (1997), "Arli$$" (2000–2001), "The Bernie Mac Show" (2002), "Cubed" (2010), and "The Mindy Project" (2014), and he co-hosted the Adult Swim variety show "Hot Package" with Mark McGrath, Derrick Beckles, and Anastasia Roark in 2013. Pat also appeared in the 2001 P. Diddy's music video "Bad Boy For Life," and he was featured on "Oprah: Where Are They Now?" in 2014.
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Personal Life
Pat filed for divorce from his wife, Linda, in August 2004. The couple had been married since 1973, and they welcomed son Sean in 1985. O'Brien began a relationship with fashion designer Betsy Hoyt Stephens in 2003, and he announced their engagement in July 2008.
Voicemails and Rehab
In March 2005, Pat went to rehab for alcoholism, and around this time, sexually graphic voicemails from O'Brien to an anonymous woman began circulating. Pat later said that he had no recollection of leaving the voicemails (which included the phrase "let's get some hookers and cocaine"), telling Oprah Winfrey in 2014, "One of the byproducts of alcoholism are blackouts. I don't remember it."
O'Brien returned to rehab in early 2008, and in a 2014 interview with "People" magazine, he stated, "I jumped headfirst into recovery, clinging for dear life to the Hazelden program. Sean agreed to fly to this little country town for Thanksgiving. He made me promise to 'just quit lying.' His visit showed me what a treasure he was, and from that moment on, my mind free of alcohol and chemicals, I pledged to never let him down again."
While Pat was in rehab, Donny Osmond filled in for him on "The Insider," and in March 2008, it was reported that O'Brien would no longer appear on the show. However, Osmond decided not to accept a permanent role on the show, and Pat returned to "The Insider" in April 2008. In September 2008, O'Brien's co-host, Lara Spencer, became the show's sole host, and Pat was demoted to a correspondent. Later that month, he was fired from the show for sending his co-workers an email in which he insulted Spencer and said that her segments made viewers "want to vomit."
