Laura Ingraham: The Fox News Star Who’s Never Tied the Knot

Laura Ingraham has been a staple on Fox News for ages now, stirring up debates and drawing in viewers with her sharp takes. At 62, she’s definitely a divisive figure in the media world, but you can’t deny she’s carved out an impressive path in a cutthroat industry.

But what about her life off-camera? Let’s dive into the details on this talk show powerhouse.

Born on June 19, 1963, in Glastonbury, Connecticut, Laura came from a solid working-class family. Her dad, James Frederick Ingraham III, was a World War II vet who ran a car wash to make ends meet. Her mom, Anne Caroline Kozak, juggled jobs at the local school and as a waitress to keep things afloat.

Growing Up and School Days

Laura was the youngest in a house full of three older brothers, and she remembers them as a rowdy bunch—always roughhousing and keeping things lively. Interestingly, politics wasn’t on her radar back then; she was all about sports and staying active.

She finished up at Glastonbury High School in 1981 and headed to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire for her bachelor’s. That’s where things got interesting—she stepped up as editor-in-chief of the conservative Dartmouth Review, becoming the first woman in that role. She wasn’t afraid to ruffle feathers, that’s for sure.

“The Review basically took over my life,” she once told the Hartford Courant back in 1999. “You had these ‘60s liberals in charge at Dartmouth, the same folks who’d stormed buildings back in the day, and they had no idea how to handle this scrappy conservative paper. I got sued a couple times for libel by professors, we even landed on ‘60 Minutes.’ It sparked my whole dive into politics—made shows like ‘Crossfire’ feel like a walk in the park.”

During her stint there, she stirred controversy by sending an undercover reporter to a campus LGBTQ group to scope out attendees, as reported by Business Insider. And yeah, there was drama—she faced a libel lawsuit from professor William Cole over an article calling his class the “most outrageous” and comparing him to a “used Brillo pad.”

The judge noted Cole, who was Black, claimed the paper was out to ridicule and defame Black folks at Dartmouth. Laura pushed back, calling the suit “absurd” and seeing it as a win for classroom journalism. After two years of back-and-forth, they settled without any payout to Cole, who had been gunning for $600,000.

She also teamed up with conservative activist Gary Bauer, writing speeches for folks like William Bennett.

Early Career Moves

After Dartmouth, Laura jumped into speechwriting for the Reagan administration and the Transportation Secretary. Then she circled back to school, grabbing her law degree from the University of Virginia.

From there, she clerked for federal judge Ralph Winter in New York’s Second Circuit Court of Appeals, followed by a gig at the Supreme Court under Justice Clarence Thomas. She rounded that out with time at the big law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, working alongside Bob Bennett (William’s brother).

Bob later described her as a “force of nature”—smart, energetic, but clearly not cut out for the rigid world of law. “If she’d stuck with it, she’d have killed it,” he said. “But politics was her real calling. She had strong views and knew how to deliver them.”

By the mid-’90s, Laura pivoted to media. She kicked off with her own MSNBC show, “Watch It!” Then in 2001, she launched “The Laura Ingraham Show” on radio, which exploded onto over 300 stations and XM Satellite Radio. It was all about her hot takes on politics, straight from D.C.

She popped up as a guest host on Fox’s “The O’Reilly Factor” too, setting the stage for her big return there later.

Rising as a Pundit

The Clinton-Lewinsky saga really put young conservative women like Laura in the spotlight, earning them the “pundette” label from the Los Angeles Times. She brought a fresh edge that rattled the old guard—youthful, bold, and not from the traditional journalism pipeline.

Journalist Eric Alterman nailed it: “She’s young, se*y, and ambitious. She argues like a lawyer in court, as if her view’s the only one that makes sense, and what’s wrong with everyone else?”

Her radio show shifted to Talk Radio Network in 2004 and kept climbing, hitting No. 5 in the U.S. by 2012 per Talkers Magazine. She even graced the cover of The New York Times Magazine in 1995 as part of a piece on rising young conservatives.

Laura’s influence just snowballed from there, making her one of the top voices in political commentary.

Her Fox News Era

She always aimed higher, though. In 2008, she scored a three-week trial for “Just In” on Fox. By 2012, she ditched Talk Radio Network and moved her show to Courtside Entertainment Group. Around then, she also started the conservative site LifeZette.

The big break came in October 2017 with “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox, which took off right away. By July 2018, it was pulling in 2.6 million viewers and ranking third in the key 25-54 demo for cable news, as Variety reported.

On top of TV and radio, she’s authored a bunch of bestsellers like “The Hillary Trap,” “Shut Up & Sing,” “Power to the People,” and “The Obama Diaries”—all hitting the New York Times list.

Love Life and Relationships

Laura’s dated some high-profile guys over the years, but marriage? Never happened, and she’s single now.

Back at Dartmouth, she connected with Dinesh D’Souza, an exchange student from India. Despite the teasing he got from others, they bonded over journalism stuff—he even taught her the ropes on sourcing and writing. They got engaged, but it didn’t lead to wedding bells. They stayed friends, though.

D’Souza’s had his own ups and downs, including a 2014 conviction for campaign finance fraud. Laura vouched for him in a letter to the judge: “Dinesh is one of the finest people I’ve known—generous, compassionate, a true American success story. I hope you see his whole life in context.”

As her career heated up in the ‘90s, her personal life made headlines too. The New Yorker mentioned a brief fling with Keith Olbermann about a decade earlier, despite their opposite politics. Keith later said politics wasn’t the deal-breaker; it was other stuff.

But things soured over time. Laura accused him of bashing U.S. troops on MSNBC, wondering what happened to him. In 2017, Keith fired back, claiming she’d once vandalized an ex’s house by shoving a garden hose through the mail slot.

She was linked to Democratic Senator Robert Torricelli in 1999 and Harvard’s former president Lawrence Summers in the early 2000s, though that was mostly tabloid buzz—neither confirmed it.

Facing Breast Cancer

In 2005, Laura got engaged to businessman James V. Reyes after a blind date setup. But just a month later, everything changed—she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer.

She shared the news on her show the day before surgery, putting wedding plans on ice. After chemo, she beat it. “The coast is clear,” she told Talkers in 2013. “I powered through it like prepping for a marathon or cramming for exams. Didn’t want pity—just kept going.”

Family and Kids

Laura’s a big advocate for adoption, both here and abroad. Over the years, she’s built her family that way: adopting her daughter Maria from Guatemala 12 years ago, then sons Dmitri and Nikolai from Russia. They all live together in Washington, D.C., and seem to be thriving.