Kaity Tong

Kaity Tong has a son, Philip Long, from her marriage to Robert Long. She later married photographer Patrick Callahan, and both marriages ended in divorce.

In 2023, Tong announced that she had been diagnosed with Stage 1 lung cancer despite having been a lifelong nonsmoker. The cancer was detected through a routine chest X-ray after a severe cold, and she underwent surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering to remove the tumor. She said she was cancer-free afterward and did not require chemotherapy or radiation.

Tong was born in Qingdao, China, and moved to the United States with her family at age four. She grew up in Washington, D.C., where her mother, a broadcaster and producer for the Voice of America, and her great-uncle Hollington K. Tong, an ambassador and writer, helped inspire her interest in journalism.

After graduating with honors from Bryn Mawr College, Tong attended Stanford University, completing a master's degree in Asian studies. She had originally planned to pursue doctoral work in Chinese and Japanese studies and become a college professor, but a summer position as a morning editor and producer at an all-news radio station in San Francisco led her into broadcasting. She never completed her doctoral dissertation.

Tong began her television career at KPIX-TV in San Francisco. Hired as a writer, she took an on-air test and was promoted to street reporter, filing her first report on carts used to transport people around an airport. In December 1979, she became co-anchor of KCRA-TV's evening newscasts in Sacramento, where she soon became the city's highest-rated television news personality.

Tong moved to New York in 1981 to join WABC-TV as a general correspondent and weekend news co-anchor. Within two years, she was co-anchoring the station's 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts, first with Tom Snyder and later with Ernie Anastos. She also worked alongside Roger Grimsby, Bill Beutel, and John Johnson during her years at the station.

After leaving WABC-TV in 1991, Tong joined WPIX in early 1992 as the station's leading female anchor. She co-anchored the 10 p.m. newscast with Jack Cafferty from 1992 to 1998 and later worked with Jim Watkins. She subsequently anchored weekend broadcasts, including the 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. PIX11 News programs, and returned to weekday television for a brief run in 2016.

In 2026, Tong announced her retirement from WPIX after more than three decades with the station. Her final broadcast was scheduled for August 30, 2026.

Tong has played newscasters and reporters in several films. She appeared as herself in Moscow on the Hudson and had roles in Wolf, Night Falls on Manhattan, City Hall, Lost Souls, People I Know, Marci X, and the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate. She also narrated The WPIX Yule Log: A Log's Life.

Her broadcast work earned multiple Emmy Awards, including honors for the 2003 special 9/11 America Remembers and the 2004 newscast WB11 News at 10: 9/11 Day of Tribute. In 2018, the New York chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences gave her its Governor's Emmy Award for four decades of presenting the news with integrity and compassion.

Tong has also received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the New York Women's Agenda Star Award, Rotary International's Paul Harris Fellowship, and recognition from the Chinese-American Planning Council, the Organization of Chinese Americans, and the Chinese America Arts Council.