Shepard Smith Biography & Net Worth

Shepard Smith Biography & Net Worth

Shepard Smith is a successful American television anchor who rose to prominence as the managing editor and chief news anchor of the breaking news department of the Fox News Channel. Famous for his unique and sometimes cynical delivery of news, he started to pick an interest in broadcast journalism when he was thirteen years old. Later, he enrolled in the University of Mississippi but dropped out without completing his degree in journalism, starting his career when he was twenty-one years old with WCJB-TV in Gainesville. He worked in different places like Los Angeles, Fort Myers, Miami, and Orlando, before finally establishing himself in the city of New York where he found employment as a New York-based senior correspondent and general assignment reporter with the Fox News Chanel. In his long association with the network, the journalist has covered many important events in the United States and across the world as well and was reckoned to be one of the most trusted hosts on both cable and network and in a TV Guide poll by the age of 38. Today, we’ll be taking a look at Shepard Smith’s life through various aspects that you may be unaware of. Let’s go!

Shepard Smith’s Early Life & Education

David Shepard Smith Jr. was born in the trading center of Holly Springs in Mississippi, the United States on January 14, 1964. His mother’s name is Dora Ellen Anderson, and she was an English teacher, while his father, David Shepard Smith Sr, worked as a cotton merchant.

As a child, Smith talked a lot and enjoyed interacting with people. While studying at Marshall Academy in 1977, he found part-time work at a drugstore as a weekend soda jerk. His interest in journalism started to build up around this same time after he watched the television coverage of music legend Elvis Presley’s funeral. He graduated from school in 1982, and it was in that same year that his parents divorced, so he moved to Florida with his mother and brother. He was already determined to become a journalist by then and nothing mattered to him, as he was captivated by the systems involved with news coverage.

He returned to his home state in 1982, to study broadcast journalism at the University of Mississippi. His professor at the institution immediately identified him as one having a great future. However, upon concluding his junior years at the university, he abandoned his studies and moved to Florida initially with the intention of going for an internship experience. But when the school year started, he made up his mind to not return, thus dropping out of school two credits shy of earning his degree in journalism.

Career & Professional Life

His career in the field of journalism started with the motivated young journalist working for several local TV news stations as a correspondent. He began with an affiliate of NBC in Panama City Beach, Florida, and later moved to another affiliate of the organization in Fort Myers. While working for a Fox News affiliate in Miami, he started to host a show called “A Current Affair.”

It was in the year 1996 that Shepard Smith began his journey with Fox, just soon after the company was first created. By 1997, he was covering massive stories like Princess Diana’s death. In 1998, he gained notoriety for reporting on the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton. During the last part of the decade, Smith also reported the Columbine shootings. Over the next few years, he was regarded as one of Fox’s chief correspondents, and he reported on stories like the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the execution of Timothy McVeigh.

In 2003, Shepard Smith was one of the main figures who helped Fox News take the third spot amongst all cable news stations in the United States. This was in a big part due to Shepard’s popularity, and a survey showed that he was one of the most regarded news anchors in America (tied for second place with Peter Jennings and Dan Rather). By 2013, he had taken a much more dynamic role behind the scenes of things, and he was promoted to the ranks of managing director of Fox News’ breaking news division. He also started hosting the program “Shepard Smith Reporting.” After the election of Donald Trump in 2016, Smith’s tenure with Fox appeared to take a negative turn. Not long after the president’s inauguration, Shepard made statements that seemed to deny Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s alleged connection to a suspicious deal with a Russian mining company.

Although Trump-supporting Fox viewers did not like him so well, Smith still signed a multi-year contract with the organization in 2018. However, he finally left Fox in 2019 due to widespread criticism from a section of Fox viewers and Donald Trump himself. In 2020, he joined CNBC and was given a new program called “The News with Shepard Smith.”

Outside the journalism field, Shepard has made a few short appearances in a number of flicks – usually appearing as himself playing the role of a news anchor. You may have seen him in films such as “Volcano.” Archival footage of him was also used in documentaries like “Bombshell” and “Fahrenheit 9/11”.

Personal Life & Family

The journalist met Virginia Donald at the University of Mississippi and later married her in 1987. Six years later, the couple decided that they have had enough of each other and decided to settle for a divorce in 1993. Years after the end of his first and only marriage so far, Smith announced that he identifies as gay and that he has been with his boyfriend named Giovanni Graziano since 2012.

Shepard Smith Net Worth

Smith is a well-known American television news anchor who probably attained the peak of fame in his career as the managing editor and chief news anchor of the breaking news department of the Fox News Channel. He joined Fox News when the company was first created and stayed with the network for several years to become one of the most important people in Fox at one time. He hosted “Fox Report,” “Shepard Smith Reporting”, and “Studio B” while at Fox, and signed multi-million dollars worth contract deals that helped grow his fortune throughout his time at the company. After leaving the channel in a move that shocked many viewers especially since he had become one of the most famous and well-known figures at the network, he started working for CNBC and NBC. In his career, his work ensured he was paid heavily at different levels of his profession, including the three-year agreement he signed with Fox in 2007 that summoned him a salary of approximately $7.5 million a year. In 2013, he renewed his contract with the same company and signed a long-term deal that paid him an annual salary of $10 million. By the time of his departure from Fox in 2019, he was reportedly earning a higher sum of $15 million annually. All of these earnings have made up his net worth of $30 million. He lives in New York City in a mansion that is currently worth more than $4.9 million, located in the neighborhood of Greenwich Village which has a history of housing several high-profile celebs, including the likes of Jon Stewart, Peter Norton, and Michael Kors.