Ginger Zee is an American TV personality mostly known for her work as a chief meteorologist for ABC News. She is also a known author and a high adventurist.
Early life:
She was born as Ginger Renee Zuidgeest on January 13, 1981, in Orange in California, United States.
Her mother is called Dawn, and her father is Robert, and he is Dutch. Therefore she is a combination of a few different origins, so this is the reason why she looks so beautiful.
The family relocated to Michigan when she was just a small baby. This hasn’t affected her since her parents were very loving.
She was named Ginger because her father is of Dutch descent and was a great fan of “Gilligan’s Island,” especially the character Tina Louise.
Ginger also has a stepfather and two half-sisters named Adrianna and Elaina. She always tried to get along with her half-sisters.
Her grandparents (Robert’s parents) came to the United States from the Netherlands, and her mother’s parents are named George Joseph and Paula Adeline. She also has English and German descent.
She grew up playing with her younger brother Sean Jeffrey and Walter. She developed an obsession with weather and anything connected with it as a young girl. She loved watching TV documentaries about nature’s weather changes and similar series. This lead to the fact that she wanted to get a job in this field.
When she was eight years old, she saw a great storm over Lake Michigan, where her family lived, and she was mesmerized by this natural event so much that she wished to become a meteorologist.
She graduated from Rockford High School in 1999, and after that the enrolled at Valparaiso University.
She gained a degree in Meteorology. She majored Spanish and mathematics and had her Bachelor’s degree in Science. She is an exceptional woman that has both the brains and the looks.
Career development:
After graduation, she started working in a lot of small TV channels in Indiana, Michigan, and Ilinois. This was just the very start of her career.
She worked at WMAQ for five years (2006-2011). She gained great experience there, starting from the smallest job and going her way up to one of the most popular meteorologists in America.
During this period she fought with her sleeping disorder and depression, but it never affected her ability to work. The only issue was tied to her personal life because she was very unhappy with the relationships she was in and the problems connected to it.
She appeared on “Storm Chasers” which is the Discovery Channel’s show premiered in 2007. The theme of the series is intercepting tornados in Tornado Alley which is a hazardous job.
In 2011 she became known widely after she joined the crew of “Good Morning America” as their Chief Meteorologist and editor.
In 2016, due to her popularity, she became a competitor on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” TV show. She was an outstanding dancer and came to the 3rd place with her partner. She was very enthusiastic about it, and she has always been passionate about everything she does.
In 2017, she published a book of her memories which became very popular amongst the public, and it was named “Natural Disaster: I Cover Them, I Am One.” The reason for the popularity of the book is the fact she was sincere in it about her professional and personal life.
She wrote about her struggle with depression from an early age which was partially caused by her narcolepsy and anorexia in her teens. She is an active woman for the fact that she had so many illnesses yet managed to get a degree.
She mentioned a huge issue, unknown to the public, which included her being in very tough relationships: from an abusive one which caused many physical and psychological scars on her to irrelevant ones, made just to keep herself in a relationship.
She also wrote about the most devastating storms recently, like the one where a tornado killed one legendary meteorologist.
She announced the release of her second book in the spring of 2018. She also hosts an ABC News series called “Food Forecast,” which focuses on how climate impacts agriculture. The situation is especially serious in America who is known for her huge crops.
She lives in New York City with her husband and son. She is pretty happy now and is very thankful for the life she is leading today.
She received some rewards for her work: an Emmy award for her work in “Good Morning America.”
Personal life:
She was only 21 when she was diagnosed with narcolepsy (neurological disorder connected with excessive sleepiness). This made her studying life much harder, but she was still very dedicated.
In 2013 she celebrated her engagement with Ben Aaron who was a known WNBC personality. The two of them met at one event called “Soulcycle Charity Event” in 2012, and they got to know each other through a mutual friend.
He is a born New Yorker, and they currently live there.They got married one year after, on July, 7th.
They starred in a season of renovation reality TV series on DIY Network, and it included the renovation of their home in New York.
She gave birth to her son Adrian Benjamin Solomon’s in 2015 and 2017 she announced that she is pregnant with her second baby, also a boy. Zee loves being a mother, and it became her refuge from her hidden disease.
As a teenager, she was diagnosed with anorexia during college, while she tried to commit suicide. She stated that all the medication she consumed then made her bad emotions ten times worse.
She was known to do self-harm, and she tried to commit suicide by pills at the age of 21.
She discovered that adventures help her struggle with depression, so she tried out a lot of things, such as para-hawking (chasing falcons during paragliding) in Nepal, para-glided in the wind of Himalayas, she has dived with sharks in the beautiful Bahama waters and many more. She once even rappelled 27 stories, secured by double ropes, down the Wit Hotel’s facade in Chicago.
She also tried out every ice sport in the world.
She is a big nature lover and she often posts beautiful pictures on her social media, especially on her Instagram account.
Dr. Zephyr Skye is a popular cartoon character on Disney Junior Channel and Zee was very grateful for getting an opportunity to do what she loves: make science approachable and closer to kids through television.
Quick summary
Full name: Ginger Renee Zuidgeest
Date of birth: January 13, 1981
Birthplace: Orange in California, United States
Age: 37
Profession: meteorologist, TV personality
Height: 170 cm
Weight: 56 kgs
Net Worth: $3 million
