Christine Ann "Chris" Kapostasy-Jansing, also known as Christine Kapostasy, was born on January 20, 1957, in Fairport Harbor, Ohio on Lake Erie to parents Joseph and Tilly Kapostasy. Her mother Tily Kapostasy is of Slovakian descent while her father Joseph Kapostasy is of Hungarian descent. Jansing is the youngest of twelve children and admitted once during an interview that as a child all she ever wanted was to be a grown-up. Jansing said in the interview, "I'm the youngest of 12 children and I wanted to do everything they did, from driving a car to playing football."

Jansing's hometown of Fairport Harbor in Ohio had a beach on Lake Erie and a lighthouse. She grew up alongside around 4,000 other immigrant residents, most of whom were of Finnish or Hungarian descent. After graduating high school, Jansing attended Otterbein College outside of Colombus, Ohio as a political science major. During her time at Otterbein, Jansing worked at the college radio station which was her first exposure to journalism. After some time at the radio station, she became hooked decided to change her major to broadcast journalism. 

Jansing graduated from Otterbein College with a Bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism in 1978. To this day, Jansing looks back fondly on her college years as an exciting time in her life.

Career: 

After graduation from college, Jansing landed a position as a general assignment reporter for WNYT in Albany, New York. She also worked as an anchor at WNYT earning an Emmy award for her Olympic Games coverage in 1996. Two years later in 1998, Jansing left WNYT to work for NBC where she worked as an anchor. She also worked as a reporter for MSNBC at the same time. In addition to her work at NBC, Jansing worked on "The Today Show" as a substitute whenever she was needed. She also served as a substitute on the Sunday edition of NBC's nightly news broadcast.