Lara Spencer

Lara Spencer: biography

Lara Christine Von Seelen is an American television host and producer better known as Lara Spencer. She gained recognition after she had started working at the ABC's Good Morning America. Lara is also a television producer and writer.

Childhood and youth

Lara Seelen was born in New York in 1969 to Richard and Carolyn von Seelen. Although there is no much information about her elder brother Keith, he can be seen on Lara’s Instagram photos rather often.

Speaking about her education, Lara studied at the Garden City High School and later attended Pennsylvania State University. During her time at the university, Spencer became a nationally ranked competitive diver. In 1991, Lara was called an All American Athlete, and then she graduated from her university, where she received a degree in Broadcast Journalism.

Career

After graduation, Spencer took part at the NBC page program where she got some experience. Later, she gained a position at the WDEF-TV in Tennessee, and she worked there as a reporter, editor, cameraman, and driver at the same time. Lara spent a year with this job and started working with the News 12 Long Island, TV channels. Two years later, Spencer became an anchor of a newscast at the WABC-TV. Her big break was the reportage about the crash of TWA Flight 800 in 1996.

Besides working on TV, Spencer is also an author. She has written two books. Her first work called I Brake for Yard Sales was released in 2012, and the second one was titled Flea Market Fabulous: Designing Gorgeous Rooms with Vintage Treasures and published two years later. Both books are about interior designing.

Television

After her raise of fame in 1996, three years later, Lara became a correspondent of the ABC's Good Morning America. In 2013, Spencer was a co-host of the 87th Miss America pageant in New Jersey together with Chris Harrison. A year later, these two hosted Miss America again. In 2017, Lara was a host of the series People Icons.

Apart from being a television host, Lara is also a producer. She created and produced the game show It's Worth What? which was hosted by Cedric the Entertainer and shown in 2011 on NBC. Spencer also created two shows about her passion – interior designing. I Brake for Yard Sales was aired in spring 2012, and the second one, Flea Market Flip, is still airing.

For 2019, Spencer has a net worth of $6 million, which includes her annual salary for TV work, earnings from the books, etc.

Personal life

In 2000, Lara married David Haffenreffer who used to work as a journalist for CNN. They had two children together: Kate and Duff. Firstly, the family lived in Connecticut and moved to Los Angeles in 2008. In 2015, Lara and David got divorced. In January 2018, Spencer showed her gorgeous engagement ring from her boyfriend, Rick McVey. Also that year, in September, the couple got married. Lara’s current husband is the founder of MarketAxess Holdings Inc.

Lara's persona caused some controversy this August when she made some comments on her Twitter about Prince George, a little member of the British royal family, who enjoyed ballet classes. Spencer’s words were understood as something offensive. As a response, Lara apologized on her social media pages and during the interview with some professional male dancers.

Achievements

For her work, Spencer was nominated for three awards, including People's Choice Award for her hosting Good Morning America and Daytime Emmy for Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade (2013).