Gretchen Carlson

Gretchen Elizabeth was born on June 21, 1966, in a Lutheran family. Her parents are Karen Barbara (Hyllengren) and Lee Roy Carlson. Her grandfather was a pastor at the second largest Lutheran church in the United States. She went to Anoka-Hennepin School District 11's Anoka High School.

She graduated from Standford University. She married sports agent Casey Close on October 4, 1997. He is also a former professional basketball player. He is a Presbyterian. They teach Sunday school together. They live a happy married life in Greenwich Connecticut, with two children.

She gained experience as anchor and reporter at several local network affiliates, before she joined CBS News as a correspondent in 2000. She became the co-host of the Saturday edition of The Early Show. She then joined Fox News Channel in 2005 and became the co-host of the morning show Fox and Friends with Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade.

In 2013, she departed from Fox & Friends and soon launched a new program called The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson. On July 6, 2016, she announced on the twitter account that she was not with Fox News anymore. The very day she filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes. She and some other women who later came forward were offered jobs opportunities in exchange for sexual pleasures. In her case, she was fired for refusing his sexual advances. She won the lawsuit. Her autobiography, Getting Real, was published in 2015 by Viking.