PREGNANCY magazine September 2004
Embracing
the Chaos with TV Journalism’s Ultimate Working Mom
By Bobbi Dempsey
She may deal with tough assignments and unpredictable
guests on-air, but Soledad O’Brien doesn’t let that – or practically
anything else – ruffle her feathers. The veteran TV journalist
is one of those rare women who have truly mastered the art of juggling
it all while making it look oh-so-easy.
O’Brien – who co-anchors CNN’s American Morning with
Bill Hemmer – is expecting twin boys in August. She and her husband,
investment banker Brad Raymond, already have two daughters – Sophia,
age 3, and Cecilia, 2. She’s the ultimate high-powered working
mom, having successfully battled morning sickness and potty training
while covering such high-profile stories as the Columbine tragedy, the
space shuttle Columbia crash and the death of JFK Jr.
keeping it together
It’s a high-stress career, but O’Brien takes a decidedly
low-stress approach to balancing her hectic life. “My motto is ‘embrace
the chaos,’” she laughs. “The smartest thing I did,
and I learned it with my first, is to kind of get off your own back.
You can’t rush a toddler, and they go the slowest when you’re
trying to get them dressed fast. I’m pretty well organized, but
if our goal is to be somewhere and we don’t make it – well
then, we just don’t make it. Once you sort of get into that mindset
of working at your own pace and embracing the chaos, whatever happens
is going to be okay. Worst case, we’re at a restaurant and we’ll
get up and leave. I think if you give yourself that freedom and that
leeway, you’ll be okay.”
partners at work, home
Admittedly, O’Brien didn’t feel so okay a few months ago,
when she suffered from extreme morning sickness. “This pregnancy
is much harder than my other two. I was much more sick this time around.
I’m a lot more tired, too. Bill Hemmer, my co-anchor, is the biggest
gem in the world. Because he’d basically have to cover for me whenever
I’d have to run out. And then I’d come back and the hair
and makeup people would touch me up. It’s awful to be really sick
like that. But after the first trimester I was 5,000 percent better.
The first pregnancy, you’re so freaked out about it, but by the
third time, you know it’ll pass, so you just get through it.”
Of course, it helps to have a supportive partner at home. “My husband
is wonderful. He loves spending time with the girls. And I think it’s
great when everybody has the same goals. We really see eye to eye on
what we want to accomplish. He’s a big help. The other thing is,
we don’t do much else. It’s not like I go out a lot. I don’t
go to parties. We decided we’d work and spend time with the kids.
And that’s pretty much all I do.”
on the beat
She’s viewed as one of the hardest-working women in TV news, so
it’s no surprise that O’Brien has no plans for a long, leisurely
maternity leave. “I plan to keep working until the bitter end.
I always worked until the last minute. I took five weeks off with my
first and four weeks with my second. So my joke is, with twins, it’ll
be 10 days. But especially with this being an election year, I have to
get back to work relatively quickly. And I like going back to work fast.
I usually find it takes a good 4 to 6 weeks to get the nursing down and
just to physically feel better, so that’s kind of my plan.”
O’Brien, 37, says the most important thing about balancing career
and kids is keeping your priorities straight and setting clear boundaries
between work and family time. “The time that I’m home with
my kids, I really try to spend with them. I don’t try to squeeze
too much in. That’s one of the reasons I like getting back to work,
because I like getting back into the routine. I’d rather be at
work and do my work there, and then be at home and be with the kids.
Instead of everybody feeling like they’re being cheated in some
way. At work, I do a lot of meetings and everything in a very tight schedule
so I can get home as early as possible. I’m pretty good about drawing
the line. I tell people very clearly when I need to be out of there,
and most of the time we’re able to do that, barring breaking news.”
O’Brien is quick to give credit to her team of helpers at home. “I
have a wonderful nanny and a bunch of young women in college who are
my baby sitters who help me out here and there. As you know, pregnant
women take a lot of naps, so it helps to have them come over and play
with the kids.”
having it all
Though she wasn’t always totally confident of her ability to juggle
it all, O’Brien said she had some great working parent role models
within her own family. “With my first daughter, I found it tough
to juggle, but by the time I had my second one, I had kind of worked
it out. Plus I have older siblings who all have kids and I think seeing
someone else doing it successfully really helped me. So I knew it was
possible to do. And not only can you do it, you can do it well.”
Still, she’s realistic enough to know her limits, so O’Brien
says her brood will probably be complete after the new additions arrive. “I
had planned to have three kids, but the twins kind of threw that off.
So now the plan is four. My plan was always to have them close together.
I don’t particularly like being pregnant, so I wanted to get that
part all over with in a short time. My siblings and I are all very close
in age, and we’re very tight, so I wanted that for my kids.”
beauty basics
Though she was named one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful
People” a few years back, O’Brien says her beauty routine
is incredibly low-maintenance. “I don’t do massages and manicures.”
Her fitness strategy is pretty basic, as well. “During my pregnancy,
I basically eat whatever I want. I try to eat healthy, but honestly a
lot of times you just eat whatever you can keep down. And since I go
back to work pretty fast – and have a lot of clothes I have to
fit back into – that usually helps you get back into shape pretty
quickly. I’m a big runner and work out a lot. I’m so fortunate
because there are some great maternity clothes out there. I found this
one line called Mommy Chic that has beautiful stuff. And I actually bought
a lot of stuff from Motherhood, which is a very affordable line that
fits great and washes well.”
And that’s about all the fashion advice we’ll get from the
busy O’Brien, who heads off to battle the New York City crowds
on her way to interview some powerful world leader – as long as
he can wrap it up before preschool ends.