What Is Diane Sawyer's Net Worth and Salary?
Diane Sawyer is a news anchor and television journalist who has a net worth of $80 million. After beginning her professional career in politics, Diane Sawyer went on to become one of the most well-known television journalists in America, having worked for a variety of news networks and organizations over the course of her decades-spanning career.
Sawyer began her career in 1967 as a weather forecaster for WLKY-TV in Louisville, Kentucky. From there, she served as an assistant to White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler during the Nixon administration. Her time in the White House provided valuable political experience, which later influenced her reporting style.
In 1978, Sawyer joined CBS News as a general assignment reporter. Her hard work and talent soon earned her a position as a political correspondent, and she became the first female correspondent for "60 Minutes" in 1984. Her features on the program showcased her ability to get to the heart of complex issues, and her interviews with various key figures were both probing and empathetic.
In 1989, Sawyer moved to ABC News, where she co-anchored "Primetime Live" with Sam Donaldson. Together, they provided in-depth coverage of significant news stories, with Sawyer earning praise for her interviews and investigative reports. Her work on this program further solidified her reputation as a top-tier journalist.
One of the most significant chapters in Sawyer's career came in 1999 when she became a co-anchor for ABC's "Good Morning America." Her warm yet authoritative presence helped boost the show's ratings, and she became a beloved figure to the morning audience. In 2009, she was named anchor of "ABC World News," becoming only the second female solo anchor of a major network's evening news program.
Throughout her career, Sawyer has conducted numerous high-profile interviews with political leaders, celebrities, and influential figures from around the world. Her interview subjects have included Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, Nelson Mandela, and many U.S. Presidents.
Sawyer's work has been recognized with numerous awards, including several Emmys and a Peabody Award.
Salary
At the peak of her time as the main anchor of "ABC World News," Diane Sawyer's salary was $22 million. During her time as a co-anchor of "Good Morning America," her salary was $12 million per year.
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Early Life
Lila Diane Sawyer was born on December 22, 1945, in Glasgow, Kentucky. Her interest in civics manifested early, and Sawyer served as editor-in-chief of her school newspaper in high school. She won 1st place in the national America's Junior Miss scholarship pageant in 1962 as a senior in high school, and she toured America promoting the Coca-Cola Pavilion at the New York World's Fair. Diane eventually went on to attend Wellesley College in Massachusetts in 1967 with a degree in English, then she went on to attend a single semester of law school at the University of Louisville. It was there, in Louisville, that she embarked on what would become her primary career: TV news. At WLKY-TV in Louisville, she worked as both a weather forecaster and general news reporter, but her work in journalism would take a brief pause after she made the move from Kentucky to the nation's capital.
Political Career
Sawyer parlayed her early journalism work into a job in the White House in 1970, when she moved to Washington, D.C., and became assistant to the White House deputy press secretary. She later became an administrative assistant to the White House Press Secretary and then a staff assistant for President Richard Nixon. She is said to have helped Nixon write his memoirs and also worked to prepare for his famous interviews with David Frost. Because of her work in the White House with the Nixon administration, she was one of the individuals commonly speculated to be the anonymous Watergate informant known as Deep Throat. Before Deep Throat's identity was publicly revealed, Sawyer was one of six popular suspects to have requested and gotten a public denial that she was Deep Throat from reporter Bob Weinstein.
Journalism Career
Diane Sawyer joined CBS News in 1978 as a reporter and correspondent. In 1981, Diane became a "CBS Morning News" co-anchor before becoming a correspondent for "60 Minutes" in 1984. From 1989 to 1998, and then again from 2000 to the present, she has served as a co-anchor of "Primetime Live." She also served as a "20/20" co-anchor from 1998 to 2000. From 1999 to 2009, she was a co-anchor of "Good Morning America" (on which she was the reporter to have broken the story of the 9/11 attacks to "GMA" viewers that morning) and was an "ABC World News" anchor from between 2009 and 2014, when her position at ABC changed to a "special contributor" for ABC News. Her tenure on "ABC World News" was subject to the same ratings struggles of all network news programs at that time but was generally successful and distinguished by Sawyer's signature sign-off: "I'll see you right back here tomorrow night." In 2010, she received the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, and in 2012, she received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Brown University. In 2019, she was named a Disney Legend thanks to her long and storied association with ABC News, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company. As a 2019 inductee, she joined such other famous faces as Robert Downey Jr., Bette Midler, James Earl Jones, and fellow TV reporter Robin Roberts in receiving the honor.
Over the course of her career, Sawyer has interviewed U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Richard Nixon. She has also interviewed Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Manuel Noriega, Nancy Reagan, Michael J. Fox, and Michael Jackson, to name only a few of the many luminaries to have been interviewed by her over the years. Diane has been inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and received an Emmy, Daytime Emmy, and a Peabody Award for her work as a reporter.
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Personal Life
Sawyer married famed film and theater director Mike Nichols in 1988, and the marriage lasted until Nichols passed away in 2014. They had no children, but Nichols did have two children from previous marriages.
Central Park Apartment
Diane Sawyer is one of many, many celebrities and public figures who have reportedly taken up residence in The Beresford, a famous luxury apartment building in New York City overlooking Central Park.
She and her late husband, Mike Nichols, once owned a handsome French-style stone house in the New York Palisades overlooking the Hudson River. The home, which was recently valued at more than $4.6 million, sits on almost two acres of land and is surrounded by lush greenery and walking paths, as well as a swimming pool and guest cottage, which, like the main house, is constructed from stone. The main house boasts over 3,000 square feet of living space with room for three bedrooms and three and a half baths, among other amenities in the secluded old-fashioned home.
Martha's Vineyard Property "Chip Chop"
In 1995, Diane and Mike paid $5.3 million for a 20-acre beachfront property in Martha's Vineyard called "Chip Chop."
Chip Chop features multiple houses, a tennis court, a swimming pool, and very large stretches of private, pristine beach. The main house alone spans 5,000 square feet and has 10 chimneys! Construction of Chip Chop began in the late 1930s but had to be put on pause due to World War II. The home was once owned by actress Katharine Cornell.
In August 2023, Diane listed Chip Chop for sale for $24 million. In November 2023, she sold the home for just under her asking price. Here is a video tour:
