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How Diane Sawyer Achieved a Net Worth of $80 Million

Diane Sawyer should be a familiar name for people with an interest in the news. After all, she was once the central figure for some of the most watched news programs in the United States, meaning that she was at the top of her chosen profession. In the present, Sawyer has stepped back to some extent for various reasons, but she remains very much involved with ABC News. On the whole, considering Sawyer's incredible success, it is no wonder that Celebrity Net Worth thinks that she has a current net worth of around $80 million, which is subject to the standard issues of estimates made on incomplete information but nonetheless speaks volumes about the scale of her personal fortune.

How Did Diane Sawyer Reach Her Current Net Worth?

For those who are curious, Sawyer was born in a place called Glasgow, KY but was raised in Louisville, KY. There, her father was a local politician of some prominence, as shown by how he was the Judge/Executive for Jeffeson County when he was killed in a car accident in 1969. As for Sawyer, she was already interested in journalism when she was still a student, if the fact that she was the editor-in-chief for her high school newspaper was any indication. In any case, she was also an exceptional student, seeing as how she managed to claim the top spot for the scholarship pageant that was then called America's Junior Miss but is now called Distinguished Young Women. Due to her experiences as America's Junior Miss, Sawyer learned to think on her feet while managing to stay poised and graceful, which have presumably contributed to her subsequent success. Eventually, she went on to attend Wellesley College, from which she graduated with a degree in English. For a time, Sawyer took law classes at the University of Louisville but that went nowhere because she made a choice to switch over to journalism instead.

With that said, Sawyer's journalism career wasn't always smooth. For instance, she managed to find a position as a weather forecaster upon graduation, but it failed to maintain her interest. Something that remained true even once she had been bumped up to being a journalist on general assignment. However, it wasn't long before Sawyer headed out to Washington, D.C. in search of a position as a broadcast journalist, where her failure to secure one caused her to interview for various government positions. In that field, she had much better results, as shown by how she had risen to the position of staff assistant for Richard Nixon by the end of the Nixon administration. For a time, Sawyer helped out with the Nixon-Ford transition team, but soon enough, she headed out to California along with the former president of the United States.

In time, Sawyer made a return to Washington, D.C., where she became a journalist on general assignment and then a political correspondent for CBS News. By 1984, she had managed to become the very first female correspondent for the respected 60 Minutes, but it wasn't too long before she made a move over to ABC News. There, Sawyer managed to rise even further, as shown by how she has been the anchor for ABC World News, Good Morning America, and Primetime at various points in her career.

However, Sawyer made a choice to step down as the anchor of ABC World News in 2014, though she made it clear that it wasn't a total departure but rather a change in focus. However, 2014 would turn out to be a very bad year for Sawyer. First, Sawyer's mother Jean Sawyer Hayes passed away. Then, Sawyer's husband Mike Nichols passed away just weeks after Sawyer's mother, which must have been a blow upon a blow. Unsurprisingly, there were reports in that period that Sawyer was struggling to cope with her losses, which presumably had an impact on her professional life for very understandable reasons.

Nowadays, while Sawyer isn't quite as active as when she was at the height of her public prominence, she remains very much involved with ABC News. For example, she is still putting her famous interviewing skills to use on various celebrities and other people of note. Likewise, she has continued to look into other issues, with an excellent example being her coverage of ISIS recruitment. While Sawyer is in her 70s, it seems reasonable to speculate that this continuing journalism could continue for years and years to come, which should come as welcome news for those who enjoy Sawyer's particular style of investigation. Naturally, it should come as no surprise to learn that the bulk of Sawyer's personal fortune has come from her work as a journalist. Unfortunately, there are no perfectly clear figures on what she was making throughout her career for obvious reasons, but there is still plenty of information that can be uncovered. For example, Forbes reported that Sawyer made around $12 million from June of 2005 to June of 2008, though it is important to note that this was entertainment income without taking anything else into consideration.

Further Considerations

Time will tell whether Sawyer will return to a position of more prominence at ABC News in the times to come. However, for the time being, she seems to be content with the journalistic work that she is doing, meaning that there doesn't seem to be a particularly convincing reason to think that she will be pushing for something like that. As such, it seems likely that her current net worth won't see particularly huge swings in one direction or another, though of course, it remains the imperfect product of incomplete information, meaning that interested individuals might want to treat it with a healthy measure of skepticism. Simply put, the figure is supposed to provide them with a general sense of what Sawyer's personal fortune is worth rather than anything more concrete, meaning that it should be treated as such.

Dana Hanson

Written by Dana Hanson

Dana has extensive professional writing experience including technical and report writing, informational articles, persuasive articles, contrast and comparison, grant applications, and advertisement. She also enjoys creative writing, content writing on nearly any topic (particularly business and lifestyle), because as a lifelong learner, she loves to do research and possess a high skill level in this area. Her academic degrees include AA social Sci/BA English/MEd Adult Ed & Community & Human Resource Development and ABD in PhD studies in Indust & Org Psychology.

Read more posts by Dana Hanson

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