Lesley Stahl

Stahl was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, and grew up in Swampscott, Massachusetts, as the daughter of Dorothy J. Tishler and food company executive Louis E. Stahl. She grew up in a Jewish household with her brother, Jeffrey. She attended Wheaton College in Massachusetts, where she graduated honors cum laude with a degree in history in 1963.

Stahl was married to Dr. Jeffrey Harold Gordon from 1964 until their divorce in 1967. In 1977, she married journalist and author Aaron Latham. The couple had one daughter, Taylor Latham, and two granddaughters, Jordan and Chloe. Latham died in July 2022 from complications of Parkinson's disease. In May 2020, Stahl announced on 60 Minutes that she had recovered after being hospitalized with COVID-19.

Stahl began her career in broadcasting in Boston at WHDH-TV as a producer and on-air reporter. She joined CBS News in 1971 and became a correspondent in 1974. Early in her network career, she served as a mentor to CBS news producer Susan Zirinsky. In June 1972, as a newly hired reporter, Stahl was assigned to cover the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex. When the suspects appeared at a bail reduction hearing, Stahl identified them, allowing CBS camera operators to capture exclusive footage of the burglars.

Stahl became the first female White House correspondent for CBS News, reporting on the presidencies of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. Her dispatches were regular fixtures on the CBS Evening News, appearing alongside anchors Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather. At the 1980 Republican National Convention, she broke the exclusive television report that negotiations between Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford had ended and that Reagan had chosen George H. W. Bush as his vice-presidential running mate. During her White House tenure, she also covered the 1981 assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan and international economic and diplomatic summits.

From September 1983 to May 1991, Stahl served as moderator of CBS's Sunday public affairs program Face the Nation. In that role, she conducted interviews with major global figures including Margaret Thatcher, Boris Yeltsin, Daniel Ortega, and Yasser Arafat. She also co-anchored the late-night CBS broadcast America Tonight alongside Charles Kuralt from 1990 to 1991.

In March 1991, Stahl became a full-time correspondent for 60 Minutes. Over several decades on the broadcast, she produced notable investigative segments and high-profile interviews. In 2002, former Vice President Al Gore revealed to Stahl on 60 Minutes that he would not run for the presidency in 2004. In 2007, French President Nicolas Sarkozy ended an interview with her prematurely after being questioned about his wife. Her 2012 interview with F-22 Raptor pilots regarding cockpit oxygen system defects spurred immediate corrective action by the Department of Defense. In October 2020, President Donald Trump abruptly ended a contentious sit-down interview with Stahl prior to the presidential election and published the footage online ahead of the broadcast.

Stahl has authored two books detailing her professional and personal milestones. In 1999, she published her memoir, Reporting Live, which documented her two decades covering Washington politics and global events. In 2016, she published Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting, examining the physiological, psychological, and personal impacts of becoming a grandmother.

In 2008, Stahl co-founded the website wowOwow.com with Liz Smith, Mary Wells Lawrence, and Joni Evans, designed as an online forum for women over 40. In addition to news broadcasting, Stahl has made occasional appearances playing herself in scripted television and film projects, including episodes of Frasier, Murphy Brown, Kidding, and Dexter: Resurrection. She also appeared as herself in the 2021 feature film Marcel the Shell with Shoes On and the 2023 film Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and provided voice work in the animated film Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.