A beloved anchor of Good Morning America has scored a big bucks payday with ABC News, netting them anywhere from $15 to $18 million a year after signing a deal to stay put for four more years with the network.
Page Six reported that George Stephanopoulos signed on the dotted line with ABC News. The beloved chief anchor of the network has been with ABC since 2002.
Stephanopoulos works not only as an anchor alongside Robin Roberts and Michael Strahan on the popular daily morning show, but he also anchors a Sunday morning news show titled This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
Page Six noted that two networks were attempting to score the veteran newsman at the end of his contract. The gossip page revealed that both CBS and CNN were looking to have Stephanopoulos as a key player of their news teams. The gossip outlet reported that CBS wanted Stephanopoulos so badly on their network, they reportedly offered him the prestigious spot of the anchor of CBS Evening News as well as a steady role on the iconic Sunday evening series 60 Minutes.
Stephanopoulos ultimately made the decision to stay with ABC News as he has been working there for almost 20 years, reported Page Six. During his tenure on ABC News, Stephanopoulos has won three Emmys, a DuPont, three Murrows, and two Cronkite Awards. According to his official ABC biography, the newsman served in the Clinton administration as the Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Strategy.
Stephanopoulos has been married to comedienne and satirist Alexandra Wentworth since 2001 and they have two daughters, Elliott and Harper.
The couple once gave a joint interview to Good Housekeeping where they talked about their relationship and how they maintain a successful marriage in the public eye. After knowing each other for only two months, the couple became engaged. They wed in November 2001 at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New York City where her new husband’s father, Rev. Dr. Robert G. Stephanopoulos, performed the wedding ceremony.
Stephanopoulos once stated, reported the New York Times, that he knew “within 24 hours, I would not ever dare risk losing her.”
The two manage to find quality time for one another said Wentworth, as reported by GH, even though Stephanopoulos goes to bed very early in the evening and rises in the early morning hours to prepare for his work on Good Morning America.
“When he got this job, I made a very conscious decision that I would go to bed with my husband. ‘Cause he gets up at 2:30 in the morning, so I’m not getting up at 2:30. I mean, let’s not be crazy. I get up at 6:00 with the kids,” the comedienne said, as reported by GH. “My feeling was if I don’t get to bed with my husband and I don’t wake up with my husband, then he’s just my roommate.”
Good Morning America airs daily on the ABC network.