Ashleigh Banfield
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Voice of the Victims
In 2015, during a CNN broadcast, Ashleigh allowed a sexual assault victim's public statement to speak for itself. She spent the first half hour of her show reading the woman's words on air. The incident occurred at Stanford University at the hands of someone named Brock Turner, who was 23 years old.
Quick Facts
- Date of Birth
- 29-12-1967
- Birth Place
- Winnipeg, Canada
- Height
- 1.78 m
Show all facts
- Husband
- Howard Gould
- Marital Status
- Married
- Alma Mater
- University of British Columbia, Queen's University
- Marriage Date
- 2004
- Nationality
- American-Canadian
- Profession
- Journalist
- Boyfriend
- Not Yet
- Ethnicity
- Canadian
- Net Worth
- $3 Million Dollars
- Children
- Jay Fischer Gould, Ridley Banfield Gould
- Birth Sign
- Sagittarius
- Employer
- CNN
- Birth Date
- 29 Dec, 1967
- Age
- 52 yrs
- Occupations
- Journalist
- Citizenship
- Canada
United States of America - Birth Place
- Winnipeg
- Education
- University of British Columbia
Queen's University - Gender
- Female
- Description
- Canadian-American journalist
- Twitter Id
- TVAshleigh
- Spouse
- Howard Gould
People Mentioned in This Biography
She didn't mince words when she read the statement, even including the more graphic parts. The victim had planned to go to a party with her sister, but when she woke up she was covered in dry blood and bandages, not realizing that she had been unconscious the night before. Turner had sexually assaulted her behind a dumpster.
Ashleigh received praise and recognition for her courageous move to read the victim's words on air to educate the audience about sexual assault. According to BuzzFeed, nearly 5 million people read the letter over the weekend. Ashleigh made a strong impact with her broadcast, as she encouraged people to pay attention to the story.
Relationships
Ashleigh married Howard Gould, a real estate financier, in 2004. He is the founder of Equator Environmental, a carbon credit trading company. They met while they were both walking their dogs in Central Park; Ashleigh had her two Westies with her, while Gould had his two pugs. The wedding took place on a wooden yacht at the Royal Lake of the Woods Yacht Club in Canada. Their marriage ended in divorce, but they still had two sons, Jay and Ridley.
In 2015, Ashleigh got engaged to her boyfriend of over two years, Chris Haynor. Chris popped the question in August while the pair were on vacation in Ontario, Canada, with Banfield's two young sons.
Career and Achievements
Ashleigh began her journalism career in 1988 while she was still living in Canada. She initially joined as a reporter at CJBN in Ontario, then moved to CKY station, and later to CFRN in Alberta. Banfield then shifted to CICT-TV and did freelance work as an associate producer for the World News Tonight Show at ABC. She covered many summits in Russia, Vancouver, and the United States. She also worked for KDFW-TV and later joined MSNBC. She then moved on to truTV before joining ABC News.
While working for the Fox affiliate KDFW-TV, she received the Emmy Award for Best News Anchor in appreciation of her reporting on the "Cadet Killers." She also received the Texas Associated Press Award for the "To Serve and Survive" series. She received Emmy Awards for her coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks for NBC News. She has produced and created the popular prime time series Disorder in the Court for truTV. She won the National Headliner Award for her reporting on terrorism from 2001 to 2004, covering countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and Israel.
She also won the IRIS Awards for Best of Festival and Best News Documentary categories in 1994. She quit her popular early morning show, Early Start on CNN, and replaced Kyra Phillips as the anchor of the 11 AM show.
