Paula Ann Zahn is a well-known American journalist who has spent decades on major U.S. news networks.
She was born on February 24, 1956, in Omaha, Nebraska, and she is 70 years old as of March 14, 2026. Many people still know her for her work at ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, and CNN, but she is especially known today as the host and executive producer of On the Case with Paula Zahn.
She is also a co-host of NYC-ARTS, which keeps her active on television beyond hard news. Notable work in her career includes Paula Zahn Now, On the Case with Paula Zahn, and her long run as a national TV anchor across several top networks.
Keep reading Paula Zahn’s Wiki to learn more about her family, partner, career, education, awards, net worth, and interesting facts.
Paula Zahn Wiki & Early Life
| Full Name | Paula Ann Zahn |
| Profession | Journalist, newscaster, producer |
| Age | 70 years old |
| Date of Birth | February 24, 1956 |
| Nationality | American |
| Zodiac/Sun Sign | Pisces |
| Birthplace | Omaha, Nebraska, USA |
| Current Address | Yet to be updated |
Paula Zahn Ex-husband & Children
Paula Zahn was previously married to Richard Cohen, a New York real estate developer. They married in 1987 and later separated in 2007 after about 20 years of marriage.
Divorce and Public Split
Their split became public in April 2007. The breakup as sudden and highly public. Later stories discussed claims about a relationship with family friend Paul Fribourg, but those claims were largely attributed to unnamed sources in media coverage, so they should be treated carefully rather than presented as settled fact.
Legal Dispute After the Divorce
The divorce remained in the public eye because of a financial dispute that followed. Zahn later sued Cohen over the alleged mishandling of about $25 million of her earnings during the marriage, and the article also notes that the case was eventually dismissed.
Children
The couple has 3 children together, one daughter and two sons, Haley Cohen, Jared Cohen & Austin Cohen, respectively. But details like their names, date of birth, and other details are yet to be updated.
| Relationship Status | Divorced |
| Ex-husband | Richard Cohen |
| Children | Daughter: Haley Cohen Sons: Jared Cohen & Austin Cohen |
Paula Zahn Family
Paula Zahn was born into a family that moved often during her childhood. Her family first lived in Canton, Ohio, and later relocated to Naperville, Illinois. Paula’s father’s IBM job, which required the family to move frequently.
Father
Norm Zahn worked for IBM as a sales executive.
Mother
Betty Zahn worked as a schoolteacher and artist.
Siblings
Paula Zahn grew up with three siblings, Leslie, Mark, and Steve.
| Parent’s Name | Father: Norm Zahn Mother: Betty Zahn |
| Siblings | Sister: Leslie Brothers: Mark & Steve |
Paula Zahn Education
Paula Zahn attended Washington Junior High School in Naperville, Illinois. She later studied at Naperville Central High School and graduated in 1974.
College and Degree
After high school, Paula Zahn went to Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. She studied there on a cello scholarship and later completed a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1978.
Early Training in Journalism
While she was still a student, Zahn also gained practical newsroom experience as an intern at WBBM-TV in Chicago. That hands-on exposure gave her an early start in broadcast journalism before she moved into local television jobs across the country.
| School | Washington Junior High School |
| Alma Mater | Stephens College in Columbia |
| Highest Qualification | Cello scholarship & Bachelor’s degree in journalism |
Paula Zahn Career
Paula Zahn built her career step by step rather than arriving through one single breakout role. After finishing college, she spent about a decade working in local television news, which gave her a strong base in reporting, anchoring, and live broadcast work.
She was at WFAA-TV in Dallas, followed by KFMB-TV in San Diego, KPRC-TV in Houston, WNEV or WHDH-TV in Boston, and KCBS-TV in Los Angeles before she moved into national network news.
That long local-news period mattered because it gave her experience in different markets and helped her develop the calm, polished on-air style that later became her trademark.
This phase of her career is important because it shows how much newsroom range she had before national fame. She was not only reading scripts on camera. She was learning how local news works in fast-moving, competitive stations, and that background made her ready for bigger national roles.
By the time ABC News hired her in 1987, she already had years of field and anchor experience behind her.
Move to ABC News
In 1987, Zahn joined ABC News, which marked her first major step into national television. She initially anchored The Health Show, a weekend program focused on health and medical issues.
Soon after that, ABC expanded her responsibilities. She became a co-anchor of World News This Morning, delivered news updates on Good Morning America, and also filled in for Joan Lunden.
Her ABC years helped define her as more than a local anchor who had moved up the ladder. At ABC, she showed that she could handle health coverage, breaking news, and mainstream morning television.
That range made her valuable to the network and also set up the next phase of her career, when she moved to CBS News and took on one of the biggest jobs in morning broadcasting.
Breakthrough Years at CBS News
In 1990, Paula Zahn moved to CBS News and began co-anchoring CBS This Morning with Harry Smith on February 26, 1990. This was one of the clearest turning points in her career because CBS’s This Morning gave her a bigger platform in national broadcast journalism. Morning shows are a demanding format.
They require hard news, live interviews, breaking developments, and a steady on-camera connection with viewers for long stretches. Zahn’s move to that role showed that CBS saw her as a major national anchor.
Her work at CBS went well beyond studio hosting. Public biographies credit her with helping cover the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville and the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. She was also involved in coverage of major national news stories such as the Waco siege.
These assignments mattered because they showed she could move between major event coverage and daily anchor duties without losing authority or clarity.
Zahn and Harry Smith left CBS’s This Morning in 1996 after changes were made to the program, but her CBS career did not end there.
She went on to anchor the Saturday edition of the CBS Evening News, fill in for Dan Rather during the week, and contribute to programs such as 48 Hours, Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel, and CBS News Sunday Morning.
Shift to Cable News at Fox News
After about nine years at CBS News, Zahn moved to Fox News Channel in 1999. This was a notable shift because cable news was becoming more influential, faster, and more personality-driven than traditional network broadcasting.
At Fox, she anchored Fox Report, the network’s nightly newscast, and soon after that, she launched her own prime-time program, The Edge with Paula Zahn.
This Fox period was important for another reason. It showed that Zahn could adapt to the pace and tone of cable news without losing the more traditional broadcast discipline she had built at ABC and CBS.
Hosting a nightly cable program required stronger opinion-resistant interviewing, quicker reaction to breaking stories, and a more direct relationship with viewers. That experience helped prepare her for the next major turn in her career at CNN.
CNN and the September 11 Turning Point
Paula Zahn joined CNN in September 2001, and her arrival happened at one of the most dramatic moments in modern news history. Her first day at the network was September 11, 2001.
Although she had not been scheduled to debut that way, she joined Aaron Brown in CNN’s coverage of the terrorist attacks, and then moved into a regular morning news role the next day. That made her CNN launch unusually intense and historically significant.
Her early CNN work quickly led to the launch of American Morning. Public sources say the program debuted on September 12, 2001, earlier than originally planned, with Paula Zahn and Anderson Cooper as anchors.
That gave Zahn a central role in CNN’s effort to reset its morning coverage during a period when viewers were depending heavily on live television news.
From Morning Anchor to Prime Time at CNN
Zahn’s move at CNN did not stop with mornings. During the Iraq War in 2003, she shifted back to prime time and hosted a two-hour program titled Live from the Headlines, which focused on continuing coverage of the war and other major events. Later that year, Paula Zahn Now premiered in September 2003.
The show gave her a distinct prime-time identity built around live interviews, political discussion, and major headlines.
This part of her career is often seen as one of her most visible periods because Paula Zahn Now turned her into the face of a named evening program rather than one anchor among several on a network lineup.
Departure from CNN
On July 24, 2007, CNN announced that Paula Zahn was leaving the network, and her final broadcast aired on August 2, 2007.
By that point, Zahn had spent nearly six years at CNN and had helped the network through both a major morning-show launch and a prime-time period shaped by war coverage and headline-driven interviews.
Her CNN exit closed the chapter of her career most closely tied to daily cable-news competition.
Up to that point, her professional path had already included every major style of television journalism: local reporting, network morning news, weekend and evening news, magazine-style reporting, and cable prime time.
That breadth is one reason her career stands out among American television journalists.
Reinvention Through True Crime
After leaving CNN, Zahn did not disappear from television. Instead, she moved into a new format that gave her career a second long-running chapter. In 2009, On the Case with Paula Zahn launched on Investigation Discovery, with Zahn serving as host and executive producer.
The series focuses on criminal cases, often using interviews with law enforcement, family members, attorneys, and others closely connected to each investigation.
This move was important because it changed the frame of her work. Instead of daily studio news, she shifted to deeply reported crime storytelling built around one case at a time.
That format allowed her to use the same interviewing skills and journalistic discipline that defined her news career, but in a slower, more documentary-style structure. It also introduced her to a new audience that may know her more from true-crime television than from network morning shows or cable prime time.
The success of the program has made it one of the most durable parts of her professional life. Investigation Discovery renewed the show for a 27th season in February 2024, and the series returned with new episodes on March 6, 2024.
Work in Arts and Cultural Television
Alongside her crime program, Paula Zahn has also remained active in arts broadcasting. She co-hosts NYC-ARTS with Philippe de Montebello. The program is presented by THIRTEEN and focuses on arts and culture in New York.
That art’s role also fits the broader shape of her career. Zahn has always moved between different kinds of television work, and NYC-ARTS adds another layer to her profile as a journalist and presenter.
Co-anchors and On-Air Colleagues Paula Zahn Worked With
- During CBS coverage of the 1992 Winter Olympics, public career summaries also note her work alongside Tim McCarver.
- At CNN, she was part of the launch of American Morning with Anderson Cooper, which placed both of them at the center of CNN’s morning coverage during a major news period.
| Year | Role/Title | Organization/Project |
| 1970s to 1987 | Reporter and anchor at local TV stations | WFAA-TV, KFMB-TV, KPRC-TV, WNEV/WHDH-TV, KCBS-TV |
| 1987 | Anchor | The Health Show, ABC News |
| 1987 to 1990 | Co-anchor and news anchor | World News This Morning and Good Morning America, ABC News |
| February 26, 1990 | Co-anchor | CBS This Morning, CBS News |
| 1992 and 1994 | Event coverage anchor/correspondent | CBS Olympics coverage |
| 1996 onward | Anchor and contributor | CBS Evening News, Saturday, 48 Hours, CBS News Sunday Morning, Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel |
| 1999 | Nightly anchor | Fox Report, Fox News Channel |
| 2000 to 2001 | Host | The Edge with Paula Zahn, Fox News Channel |
| September 2001 | Anchor | CNN |
| September 12, 2001 | Co-anchor | American Morning, CNN |
| 2003 | Prime-time host | Live from the Headlines, CNN |
| 2003 to 2007 | Host | Paula Zahn, Now, CNN |
| 2009 to present | Host and executive producer | On the Case with Paula Zahn, Investigation Discovery |
| Present | Co-host | NYC-ARTS, THIRTEEN/PBS |
Paula Zahn Awards and Achievements
Paula Zahn has earned several respected honors in broadcast journalism, with awards that reflect both her long television career and the impact of her reporting.
| Year | Work or Award | Role/Category |
| 1994 | Emmy Award | Reporting on mainstreaming the education of the mentally disabled |
| 1997 | Emmy Award | CBS coverage of the death of Princess Diana |
| yet to be updated | Emmy Awards | Broadcast journalism |
| yet to be updated | National Commission of Working Women Broadcasting Award | Broadcasting |
| yet to be updated | Gracie Award | Reporting on gender bias in education |
| 2006 | Gracie Award | Paula Zahn Now exclusive interview with Carmen bin Laden |
| 2006 | National Headliner Award | Paula Zahn Now newscast on the emergency landing of a JetBlue plane |
| 2006 | Freddie Award | Interview with Tommy Thompson about his family’s dealings with breast cancer |
| 2007 | Gracie Award | Paula Zahn Now: Dana Reeve: A Tribute |
| March 2021 | Hope on the Horizon Award | ADDF honor |
Paula Zahn Controversies
The table below includes only controversies that were publicly documented through court records or strong mainstream reporting. Rumor-based claims are left out.
| Year | Controversy | Detail |
| 2004 | Pale Male hawk nest dispute | Paula Zahn and her then-husband Richard Cohen were drawn into a very public New York controversy after the nest of the well-known red-tailed hawk Pale Male was removed from their Fifth Avenue co-op building. Cohen, who was president of the co-op board, became a central figure in the backlash, and Zahn was also publicly tied to the story because she lived in the building and was a high-profile media figure. |
| 2007 | Public divorce and financial lawsuit against Richard Cohen | After her separation became public, Paula Zahn sued Richard Cohen, alleging he had mishandled earnings from her career. The dispute became widely reported because of the size of the claim and the public profile of both parties. |
| 2007 | Lawsuit dismissed by New York court | The financial case did not succeed. A New York state court dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that it was not a true commercial case and was instead a matrimonial dispute. This made the divorce fight even more public and is one of the clearest documented controversies tied to Zahn’s name. |
Paula Zahn Net Worth, Salary
Paula Zahn’s estimated net worth is around $18 million.
Details about the yearly salary show she earned about $600,000 per year at Fox News and later received a $2.1 million yearly offer from CNN.
| Net Worth in Dollars (Approx.) | $18 million |
| Salary (Yearly) | Fox News: $600,000 CNN: $2.1 million |
Paula Zahn Height, Weight & Physical Stats
Paula Zahn is about 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm) tall. She has blonde hair and green-gray eyes. Her exact weight and body measurements are yet to be updated.
| Height | In centimetres: 175 cm In meters: 1.75 m In feet & inches: 5 feet 9 inches |
| Weight | In kg: Yet to be updated In lbs: Yet to be updated |
| Body Measurements | Yet to be updated |
| Hair Color | Blonde |
| Eye Color | Green-gray |
Paula Zahn Facebook
 @PaulaZahnOfficial |
Interesting Facts About Paula Zahn
- Paula Zahn attended Stephens College on a cello scholarship.
- She performed with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall in May 1992.
- She worked in local television for about 10 years before becoming a national anchor.
- Paula has worked at ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, and CNN.
- She is the host and executive producer of On the Case with Paula Zahn.
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FAQs
Who is Paula Zahn?
Paula Zahn is an American journalist and television host. She is known for working with major news networks like ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, and CNN.
Was Paula Zahn married?
Yes, Paula Zahn was married to Richard Cohen. Their marriage later ended in divorce.
Does Paula Zahn have children?
Yes, Paula Zahn has three children. Public sources mention that she has one daughter and two sons.
What does Paula Zahn do now?
Paula Zahn is still active in television. She continues to host On the Case with Paula Zahn and also co-hosts NYC-ARTS.
