Diane Sawyer Biography

Diane SawyerAward-winning journalist Diane Sawyer was born Lila Diane Sawyer on December 22, 1945, in Glasgow, Kentucky. Soon after her birth, Diane's family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where Diane became interested in pageantry. At eighteen years old, Diane was crowned America's Junior Miss and Kentucky's Junior Miss. For her first pageant, Diane listed her favorite activities as tennis, basketball, being a Young Republican, and, when time permits, knitting.After completing one year of law school, Diane switched majors and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Wellesley College in 1967. After graduation, Diane worked as a reporter for WLKY-TV in Louisville until 1970. Next, she was hired to serve in President Richard Nixon's administration on the Nixon-Ford transition team, and also assisted President Nixon in the writing of his memoirs. At one point, Diane was strongly suspected of being Deep Throat during the Watergate scandal.In 1978, Diane was hired on with CBS as a political correspondent, later becoming a co-anchor of the network's Morning News in 1981. In 1984, Diane became a correspondent for 60 Minutes, where she stayed until 1989, when she was offered a position with ABC to co-anchor Primetime Live with Sam Donaldson. In 1999, Diane began co-anchoring Good Morning America with Charles Gibson. In 2006, it was announced that Charles Gibson would leave Good Morning America to anchor World News Tonight.As an award-winning investigative journalist, Diane has reported on such diverse issues as biological weaponry in Russia, daycare abuse, pharmacy prescription errors, and the questionable business practices of televangelists. She has also gone undercover to investigate racial discrimination in America, in which a hidden camera captured discriminatory treatment of blacks.Some of Diane's high-profile interviews include President George W Bush (first national interview), Saddam Hussein (first Western television interview in nearly 10 years), Fidel Castro, Manuel Noriega (first interview in prison), then-newlyweds Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley (only interview), and Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton (first interview following the 1992 presidential election.)Diane's overseas reporting includes coverage of the attempted Soviet coup in Moscow from the office of Boris Yeltsin; an interview with King Hussein and his American-born wife, Queen Noor, from Jordan during the Gulf War; and coverage from North Korea of the country's famine and the government's attempted cover-up.During the week of September 11, 2001, Diane reported live from Ground Zero, interviewing over sixty widows who gave birth after the terrorist attacks. She also interviewed Rosie O'Donnell during a groundbreaking two-hour special on gay adoption and the foster care system.Diane's work has been recognized with numerous Dupont Awards, Robert F Kennedy awards, Emmys, the grand prize of the premier Investigative Reporters and Editors Association, two George Foster Peabody Awards for public service, an IRTS Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as the USC Distinguished Achievement in Journalism Award. She is also an inductee in both the Broadcast Magazine Hall of Fame and the Television Academy of Fame.Diane currently lives with director Mike Nichols, to whom she has been married since April 29, 1988. Diane is rumored to be leaving Good Morning America when her contract expires in 2007.