Most professional journalists either specialize in the hard or soft news beat. However, there are a few who have been able to shine in both fields and one good example is Kaylee Hartung. In a career spanning a decade and counting, she has worked for a diverse array of networks, including sports channel, ESPN, and cable news powerhouse, CNN.
With her elegance, linguistic expertise, and mind-blowing presentation skills, Kaylee has grown to become one of the faces people long to see on television. Her expertise has garnered her thousands of passionate followers on all the programs she has featured in. It has also fetched her two Lone Star Emmys; an award many in her field struggle to earn all through their career years.
Growing up in Baton Rouge
Kaylee Hartung is a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and was born on November 7, 1985. There is a paucity of information about her family, including her parents and siblings. Kaylee has also not been forthcoming about how and at what point she knew she would love to pursue a career in journalism.
Some unconfirmed information, however, has it that her father was a pilot named Joe Hartung, who lost his life in a plane crash at an air show in Lafayette when his daughter was just ten years of age. Moving on from that sad titbit, Kaylee had her high school education at Episcopal High School and graduated in 2003. She then attended Washington and Lee University where she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Politics in the year 2007.
First Forays into Broadcast Journalism
Kaylee Hartung kicked off her career as an intern for CBS News Washington bureau in 2007. She started by producing, editing, and photographing reports for the CBS news site, CBSNews.com. She also hosted Unplugged Under-40 during which she interviewed young influencers in Washington. Kaylee was subsequently promoted to the position of an associate producer at CBS. In this role, she assisted veteran TV host, Bob Schieffer, on the popular news show, Face The Nation.
She subsequently helped Schieffer to carry out research which came in quite handy in his coverage of the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, as well as the 2008 presidential debate. After spending about five years with the CBS, Kaylee switched gears and joined renowned sports network, ESPN, in 2012. She primarily served as a reporter and regularly appeared on the channel’s flagship program, SportsCenter.
She also contributed reports and analysis to the network’s coverage of College Football Playoffs, men and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments, as well as the College World Series. Kaylee also covered the heart-wrenching funeral service of late Vanderbilt University baseball pitcher, Donny Everett. All of this hard work did not go unnoticed as the Louisiana native earned two state Emmys. One was for a feature she did on super Longhorns fan, Brandon Puente, while the other was for hosting a women’s history month edition of Longhorn Extra.
Her Berths at CNN and ABC
After five successful years at ESPN, Kaylee Hartung decided to embark on a new challenge and joined CNN as an Atlanta-based reporter in April 2017. She spent two eventful years with the cable network during which she covered the devastating effects of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Nate.
Kaylee also covered man-made tragedies such as the Charlottesville riots of 2017, as well as the Parkland and Sutherland Springs shootings. Kaylee’s time at CNN was however not all doom and gloom. She reported on the hotly-contested 2017 Alabama Senatorial race between Doug Jones (Democrat) and Roy Moore (Republican), as well as the enthralling 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election between Brian Kemp (republican) and Stacey Abrams (democrat).
I’m all out of tears at this point. The Macias family will be in my life forever. https://t.co/K3gSxwFYW6
— Kaylee Hartung (@KayleeHartung) May 18, 2020
Kaylee Hartung bade farewell to CNN in 2019 and subsequently joined the ABC network in July that same year. She has continued her correspondent role at the network but now reports from New York rather than Atlanta. During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, New York was the worst affected state in America and Hartung spent copious amounts of time covering the pandemic for her network.
She, however, found herself at the receiving end as she contracted the virus in March. Luckily for the reporter, her symptoms were relatively mild and she recovered in no time. Upon recovery, Hartung donated her blood to be used as plasma treatment for other sufferers. This act fetched her widespread praise including from a family whose father recovered after being treated with her blood.
See Also: A Look Into Meisha Johnson – Anchor Career and Tidbits of Her Personal Life
Tim Tebow Rumours
It may interest you to know that the New York-based ABC correspondent is still single and more focused on building her career than getting into serious relationships. That, perhaps, maybe why she avoids topics that are linked to husbands or children. This reality does not, however, negate the fact that Kaylee Hartung is a fun-loving person. Her job entails a lot of travelling and she meets a variety of interesting personalities while at it. She is also quite active on social media platforms and has a good number of fans across Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Moreover, the Southern girl has given us a hint on the kind of man she would love to have around her. During an interview in 2013, the ABC reporter said she would like to be with a man who loves sports as much as she does. She also said that she would love to date a man who has a pretty classy look, who “is put together” and puts some thought and effort into his style. It seems Kaylee has not been able to find such a man and for now, remains single. This single status has however opened up room for all manners of rumours and speculations. The ABC correspondent was once rumoured to have dated baseball star, Tim Tebow.
For those who may not know him, Tebow is a professional MLB player who is not only famous for his athletic prowess but also his outspoken Christian beliefs. Kaylee was first linked to Tebow after she described him as ‘a friend like a brother’. The MLB star then responded by posting a picture of them together on his Twitter handle in October 2015. The rumour mill ran with this but it eventually turned out to be false.
Kaylee has been able to avoid other speculations since then while Tebow on his part is now a happily married man. The MLB star tied the knot with former Miss Universe, Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters, in her native South Africa in January 2020.
