Soledad O'Brien: co-host, CNN's American Morning

Ebony, Dec, 2004

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, who gave birth to twin boys late this summer, returned to her post as co-host of CNN's flagship morning show, American Morning. The veteran journalist, who has attracted new viewers since joining the network last year, brings experience from NBC's Today Show, NBC's Nightly News, MSNBC's The Site and The Discovery Channel's The Know Zone, for which she received a local Emmy Award.

CNN's newest anchor, whose mother is a Black Cuban and whose father is an Australian, says that she checks three boxes on the U.S. Census form: African-American, Hispanic and Caucasian. "I define myself as multiracial," she says. "Definitions are important to other people. They make no difference to my life." She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and is on the board of directors of the Harlem School for the Arts. She is a graduate of Harvard University and lives in Manhattan with her husband, Brad Raymond, and their daughters, Sofia and Cecelia, and twin boys, Charlie Raymond and Jackson Raymond.