Michelle Charlesworth (born June 7, 1970) is an American television news reporter and anchor. Since 1998 she has been a reporter for both

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

and

WABC-TV WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios in the Lincoln Square neighbor ...

, as well as a weekend morning anchor for WABC-TV's

Eyewitness News ''Eyewitness News'' is a style of television news presentation that emphasizes visual elements and action video, replacing the older "man-on-camera" newscast. History Pioneered by Westinghouse The earliest known use of the ''Eyewitness New ...

. She is best known for an award-winning series of reports about her battle with skin cancer, which aired on both WABC-TV and

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

's ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

''. A dermatologist was being interviewed on the air by Charlesworth and thought a mark on her face was basal cell carcinoma, which a biopsy later confirmed.

Early life and education

Charlesworth was born in Durham where she lived until she was twelve years old. Her father James H. Charlesworth is a professor at Duke University. An alumna of Princeton High School in

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

, she graduated from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in public policy and studied economics in a graduate program on a full scholarship from the German government at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisg ...

Career

She worked as an anchor and reporter for

WNCN-TV WNCN (channel 17) is a television station licensed to Goldsboro, North Carolina, United States, serving the Research Triangle area as an affiliate of CBS. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on Front Street in north Ral ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

from 1996 to 1998, and also at

. She was recently on a long list of WABC-TV reporters in line to replace fired Eyewitness News ''This Morning'' co-anchor

Steve Bartelstein Steve Bartelstein is an American former television journalist. He was previously a news anchor in New York City, first at WABC-TV (1999–2007), a flagship station of the ABC television network, WCBS-TV (2007–2009), a flagship station ...

. Another candidate for the anchor seat was reporter

Lisa Colagrossi Lisa Colagrossi (May 9, 1965 – March 20, 2015) was an American journalist and television news anchor and reporter. She was a reporter for WABC-TV In New York City from September 2001 until her death on March 20, 2015. Career Prior to joinin ...

Ken Rosato Ken Rosato is an American journalist. He graduated from Regis High School in New York City and then went on to get a bachelor's degree in Film, TV and Radio at New York University. Following his undergraduate studies, he received a master's d ...

became the co-anchor with

Lori Stokes Lori Stokes (born September 16, 1962) is an American former journalist and news anchor. She was the evening news anchor for the 5, 6, and 10 O’Clock news at Fox 5 NY WNYW in New York City from 2021 to 2022. She formerly co-hosted ''Good Day Ne ...

on July 6, 2007. Charlesworth continues to substitute regularly for Ken Rosato or Shirleen Allicot, thus prompting others, including

Toni Yates Toni Yates (born November 1962) is an American news reporter and anchorwoman who currently works for Eyewitness News WABC-TV as their New Jersey reporter. She joined the station from WPHL-TV WB17 where she was a news anchor and reporter since 199 ...

, and, prior to her death, Lisa Colagrossi to fill in for ''her'' on the Weekend Morning broadcasts with Rob Nelson. She was the first person to report live from New York during the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

. In 2002, Charlesworth received the Gold Triangle Award from the

American Academy of Dermatology The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) is a non-profit professional organization of dermatologists in the United States and Canada, based in Rosemont, Illinois, near Chicago. It was founded in 1938 and has more than 20,500 members. The Academy ...

for her reporting on skin cancer.

In popular culture

Charlesworth features in the 2008 fictional novel ''Perksy's Last Year'' by Stanley Hart.

Personal life and health

Charlesworth lives in New Jersey with her husband, they have two children. A dermatologist was being interviewed on the air by Charlesworth and thought a mark on her face was basal cell carcinoma, which a biopsy later confirmed.

References

External links