Heather Childers


Heather Star Childers is an American television news anchor. She was a former anchor of the first hour of Fox & Friends First for Fox News Channel, and worked for the organization from 2010 until 2020.

Biography

Early years

Heather Childers grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. As a young child she attended Sharon Elementary School, in the Foxcroft area of Charlotte, and is a 1987 graduate of Myers Park High School. Childers stated that other Fox News on-air correspondents Ainsley Earhardt and Anna Kooiman, attended the same elementary school, though not at the same time, nor were in the same class.
After graduating from high school, she attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, then graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, earning an undergraduate degree in English.

Professional career

Childers began her professional career at WCNC-TV in Charlotte as a producer and reporter in 1992. Three years later, she was a weekday anchor and then news director for WFXL in Albany, Georgia. She then moved to WLOS in Asheville, North Carolina in 1999. Then in 2002 she became an anchor for News 14 Carolina.
Childers came to Fox News Channel as a general assignment reporter in the fall of 2010, and became an anchor for America's News Headquarters in August 2011. She would later move to the first hour of Fox & Friends First.
In April 2012, Childers created controversy with a post on her Twitter account. In the post, Childers linked to an article from a fringe news site, asserting that President Barack Obama was attempting to silence Chelsea Clinton regarding false claims over her alleged skepticism regarding his birth certificate. In response to criticism of the tweet, Childers said that she was "asking for opinion."
In March 2020, Fox News executives expressed concern and anger about Childers coming to work and appearing on air while ill, and took her off the air, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The network officially confirmed the termination of her contract in July 2020, after several months where she would not appear on the network again. Childers had tested negative for COVID-19, and tweeted at the network several times to ask to return to her position.

Awards