Biography

Gretchen Elizabeth Carlson (born June 21, 1966) is an American broadcast journalist, writer, and television personality.

Carlson was born and raised in Minnesota. A talented youth violinist, Carlson competed in a number of music contests before becoming a beauty pageant contestant. After winning Miss Minnesota in 1988, Carlson became Miss America for 1989. She attended Stanford University and graduated in 1990. Carlson became a television anchor, working for several local TV stations in Virginia, Ohio and Texas before becoming a national correspondent and anchor on CBS. She hosted the Saturday edition of The Early Show on CBS News from 2002 to 2005. Carlson subsequently moved to Fox News's morning show Fox & Friends, from 2005 to 2013, and The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson on Fox News from 2013 to 2016.

In July 2016, Carlson filed a lawsuit against then Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes claiming sexual harassment. Subsequently, dozens of other women also stepped forward to accuse Ailes of harassment, and Ailes resigned under pressure. In September 2016, Carlson and 21st Century Fox settled the lawsuit reportedly for $20 million and Carlson received a public apology. Carlson was one of the first high publicity cases of 2016's #MeToo movement. In 2019, she co-founded Lift Our Voices to work towards a ban on non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and forced arbitration clauses in employment agreements. In February 2022, the U.S. Congress passed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, a law championed by Carlson which excludes sexual assault and sexual harassment complaints from arbitration clauses, including retroactively. On March 3, 2022, President Joe Biden signed the bill into law. Later that year, another bill backed by Carlson, the Speak Out Act (S.4524), was also signed the into law by President Biden on December 7, 2022.

Carlson also served as chairwoman of the board of directors of the Miss America Organization from 2018 to 2019. Carlson was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People In The World in 2017. She has written two books, her memoir, Getting Real, and the New York Times bestseller Be Fierce: Stop Harassment and Take Your Power Back.