Ashleigh Dennistoun Banfield (born December 29, 1967) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

- American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and host of ''Banfield'' on the NewsNation network. She is a former host of ''Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield'' and ''

Early Start ''Early Start'' is an American news morning television show on CNN and also broadcast on CNN International. It premiered on January 2, 2012. Anchored by Christine Romans since 2014, the program airs weekdays from 5:00-6:00 a.m. ET. Histo ...

'' on

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Education

Banfield was educated in her native Canada at Balmoral Hall School, a private

university preparatory school A college-preparatory school (usually shortened to preparatory school or prep school) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily designed to prepare students for higher educatio ...

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

, which she left in 1985 (also attended by her mother, Suzie (Holland) Lount, in the 1950s). She went on to obtain a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

and French from Queen's University in Kingston,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, in 1988 and continued her studies in French at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

, in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, graduating in 1992.

Career

Canada

Banfield began her career in 1988 at

CJBN-TV CJBN-TV, VHF analogue channel 13, was a Global- affiliated television station licensed to Kenora, Ontario, Canada. The station was owned by Shaw Communications under its cable systems unit, and was not part of the Shaw Media unit which was ...

in Kenora,

, and at

CKY-TV CKY-DT (channel 7) is a television station in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. The station is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media, and maintains studios on Graham Avenue (adjacent to the Canada Life Cen ...

in Winnipeg later that year. From 1989 to 1992, she anchored the weekend news for

CFRN-TV CFRN-DT (channel 3) is a television station in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside cable-exclusive CTV 2 Alberta. The two outlets share studios with siste ...

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

. She worked at

CICT-TV CICT-DT (channel 2) is a television station in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, part of the Global Television Network. The station is owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, and has studios at the Calgary Television Centre on 23 Str ...

in Calgary, as a producer from 1992 to 1993 and as evening news anchor and business correspondent from 1993 to 1995. Banfield won two

Iris Award The NATPE Iris Awards are an honor for local television programming excellence presented annually in the United States by the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE). The awards were introduced in 1968 and were initially tit ...

s in 1994 in the categories of Best News Documentary and Best of Festival. Banfield was a freelance associate producer for ABC's '' World News Tonight'' during her tenure at CICT-TV. She covered the 1991 Bush/Gorbachev Summit in Russia and the April 1993 Clinton/Yeltsin Summit in

United States

In early 2000, Banfield was hired by national cable network

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politi ...

after having won an Emmy for her reporting at

Dallas, TX Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County wi ...

broadcast station

KDFW-TV KDFW (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNe ...

. According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', she "fit nicely with MSNBC's positioning as the news network of choice for younger viewers". She also hosted ''

MSNBC Investigates ''MSNBC Documentaries'' is the umbrella title of a series of documentaries co-produced by NBC News and MSNBC. Broadcast on MSNBC, each documentary is given its own title to broadcast under (e.g., ''Lockup: Return to Pelican Bay'') or has been p ...

'', worked at

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

, and became a host of ''HomePage'' along with

Gina Gaston Gina Gaston (born January 14, 1966, in Oxnard, CA) is a television journalist and currently the lead anchor for KTRK-TV in Houston, Texas. Career She joined channel 13 in 1992 to anchor the morning newscast with Tom Koch. She then left in 1999 to ...

and

Mika Brzezinski Mika Emilie Leonia Brzezinski Scarborough (; pl, Brzezińska; born May 2, 1967) is an American talk show host, liberal political commentator, and author who currently co-hosts MSNBC's weekday morning broadcast show ''Morning Joe''. She was forme ...

. On September 11, 2001, Banfield was reporting from the streets of Manhattan amid a cloud of debris from the collapsing World Trade Center. She was reporting a few blocks north of the site when 7 World Trade Center collapsed behind her. After the initial reporting of the attack had ended, Banfield received a promotion, as MSNBC sent her around the world as the producer of a new program, ''A Region in Conflict''. Banfield lost two friends in the World Trade Center attacks and sought help for

post-traumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats o ...

. During the conflict in Afghanistan, Banfield interviewed

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...

prisoners, and visited a hospital in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

. Later entries covered her travels from

Jalalabad Jalalabad (; Dari/ ps, جلال‌آباد, ) is the fifth-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 356,274, and serves as the capital of Nangarhar Province in the eastern part of the country, about from the capital Kabul. Jala ...

, as well as other experiences in Afghanistan. In

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

, she interviewed Father Gregory Rice, a Roman Catholic priest in Pakistan, and an Iraqi woman aiding refugees. After ''A Region in Conflict'', she received the 10 pm timeslot with the show ''Ashleigh Banfield on Location''. In April 2003, in a Landon Lecture Series speech at Kansas State University, Banfield raised concerns regarding media coverage of the conflict in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

. She spoke against "cable news operators who wrap themselves in the American flag and go after a certain target demographic" and specifically named Fox News Channel as an example. ''The New York Times'' reported that her speech angered MSNBC controlling

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

management, who rebuked her and lowered her profile. "They just fell in love with a new toy and they played with it and played with it and played with it until the paint came off", said an NBC News correspondent of the network's relationship with Banfield. Banfield joined CourtTV (renamed

TruTV TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts comedy, docusoaps and reality shows. The channel was originally launched in 1991 as Court TV, a network that fo ...

) in 2005. She was the co-host of the trial coverage show ''Banfield & Ford: Courtside'' weekdays from 1 to 3PM ET with Jack Ford. On June 1, 2009, Banfield took over as host of the truTV series ''Open Court'' weekdays from 9 to 11 a.m. ET, formerly hosted by Lisa Bloom. Her last major assignment with the network was reporting on the Casey Anthony trial. Banfield joined CNN in January 2012 as co-anchor with Zoraida Sambolin, of the network's morning show, ''

''. On August 13, 2012, Banfield moved to the 11 a.m. edition of ''

CNN Newsroom ''CNN Newsroom'' (also simply known as ''Newsroom'') is an American news programming block that airs on CNN. Broadcasting for 43 hours each week, ''Newsroom'' features live and taped news reports, in addition to analysis from experts on the iss ...

'' in New York each weekday, replacing Kyra Phillips as anchor. On August 6, 2013, it was announced that CNN would rebrand its 11 a.m. hour of ''CNN Newsroom.'' The show, called ''Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield'', aired at 12 noon Eastern. In 2014, Banfield was featured in a small role portraying herself in the Netflix series

House of Cards A house of cards (also known as a card tower or card castle) is a structure created by stacking playing cards on top of each other, often in the shape of a pyramid. "House of cards" is also an expression that dates back to 1645 meaning a structu ...

, where she interviewed

Claire Underwood Claire Underwood (née Hale) is a fictional character in '' House of Cards'', played by Robin Wright. She is the wife of the show's protagonist Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) and the main protagonist in the final season. She is a lobbyist an ...

. In October, Banfield joined CNN sister station HLN as host on the legal issues interview program ''Primetime Justice with Ashleigh Banfield,'' which aired at 8 p.m. Monday to Thursday. As of December 2017, the show has been re-branded as ''Crime & Justice with Ashleigh Banfield''. On October 16, 2018, it was announced by HLN that Banfield was to be laid off, along with

Michaela Pereira Michaela Pereira (born August 26, 1970) is a Canadian television personality best known as being a former anchor for KTLA in Los Angeles and for the KTTV FOX11 Los Angeles morning show, ''Good Day LA''. She announced on March 28, 2013, that she ...

and Carol Costello, as part of the network's decision to scale back their live news programming. Final broadcasts of the shows hosted by all three presenters were aired on Friday, October 26, 2018. She then was the inaugural host of the A&E show '' Live Rescue.'' After the first season, Matt Iseman took over as host. She resumed hosting programs on CourtTV, including the true crime documentary series ''Judgment with Ashleigh Banfield'' in 2020. The program recaps past high profile trials and provides updates on the individuals involved. She also appeared as a special contributor on their evening courtroom highlight show. In January 2021, Banfield was announced as the host to replace the third hour of '' NewsNation Prime'' on NewsNation. The interview program, titled ''Banfield'', is intended to interview newsmakers from all walks of life in a style said to be similar to ''

Larry King Live ''Larry King Live'' was an American television talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was the channel's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly. Mainly aired from CNN's Los Angeles ...

.''

Personal life

Banfield was born in

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

, the daughter of Suzanne Elizabeth (Holland) and John Alexander Banfield. She was known for her "trademark rectangular eyeglasses, the object of countless remarks, pro and con, after her arrival on the national media scene."Dumas, Timothy (Jan-Feb 2009)
Truth and Consequences: Meet Ashleigh Banfield. She spoke out about TV war coverage and paid a high price. Would she do it again?
''New Canaan-Darien Magazine'' (from archive), retrieved April 7, 2017. In 2016, she had refractive lens exchange surgery which corrected her

far-sightedness Far-sightedness, also known as long-sightedness, hypermetropia, or hyperopia, is a condition of the eye where distant objects are seen clearly but near objects appear blurred. This blurred effect is due to incoming light being focused behind, i ...

. Banfield is a cousin of television writer and director

Michelle MacLaren Michelle Maxwell MacLaren is a Canadian television director and producer. She has directed episodes of ''The X-Files'', ''Better Call Saul'', ''Breaking Bad'', '' The Walking Dead'', ''Game of Thrones'', and ''Westworld''. MacLaren won two back- ...

. In 2004, Banfield married real estate financier Howard Gould, who founded the

carbon credit A carbon credit is a generic term for any tradable certificate or permit representing the right to emit a set amount of carbon dioxide or the equivalent amount of a different greenhouse gas (tCO2e). Carbon credits and carbon markets are a compo ...

trading Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...

company Equator Environmental, and is a great-grandson of railroad developer

Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made him ...

.Ashley Banfield's Wedding
, LauraMadrigano.com; accessed February 16, 2015. The wedding took place aboard a wooden yacht at the Royal Lake of the Woods Yacht Club in Canada. The couple, who are now divorced, have two sons. Banfield became a naturalized U.S. citizen on October 24, 2008. On December 29, 2017, Banfield's 50th birthday, she married her partner of three years, Chris Haynor, at the Hermitage Club ski lodge in

Wilmington, Vermont Wilmington is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,255 at the 2020 census. History The town was chartered in 1751 by Benning Wentworth, colonial governor of New Hampshire. It was named in honor of Spencer Comp ...

References

External links

Banfield biodata
TruTV.com; accessed February 16, 2015. *
Twitter (@TVAshleigh)

Facebook (AshleighBanfield)

Personal website - archived September 2, 2013
* https://www.newsnationnow.com/author/ashleigh-banfield/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Banfield, Ashleigh 1967 births Living people Canadian emigrants to the United States Journalists from Manitoba Journalists from Dallas Queen's University at Kingston alumni Balmoral Hall School alumni News & Documentary Emmy Award winners University of British Columbia alumni American television news anchors Canadian television news anchors Canadian women television journalists CNN people People from Winnipeg American women television journalists 20th-century Canadian journalists 20th-century American journalists 21st-century American journalists Naturalized citizens of the United States 20th-century American women 21st-century American women 20th-century Canadian women