Geraldo Rivera

Background

Ethnicity: Rivera has described his background as Puerto Rican and Jewish. His father, Cruz Rivera, was born in Puerto Rico, while his mother, Lillian Friedman, came from a Jewish family.

Rivera was born on July 4, 1943, at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan, New York City, to Cruz Rivera and Lillian Friedman. His father, who had migrated from Puerto Rico, worked as a cook and later as a taxi driver, while his mother came from a Jewish family. Rivera grew up in Babylon and West Babylon on Long Island, where he encountered both Puerto Rican and Jewish cultural traditions.

Rivera has described his childhood as shaped by the tensions of an interfaith and intercultural family. Spanish-speaking relatives, Puerto Rican customs, and Jewish religious life were all part of his background. He attended West Babylon High School before entering the New York State Maritime College, leaving after his freshman year and transferring to the University of Arizona.

Education

Rivera initially attended the New York State Maritime College but left after his freshman year. He then studied at the University of Arizona in Tucson, a land-grant university established in 1885 before Arizona achieved statehood. The institution's early mission combined higher education, public service, and practical study suited to the development of the American Southwest. Rivera graduated in 1965 with a Bachelor of Science degree.

He earned a Juris Doctor from Brooklyn Law School in 1969. Founded in 1901, Brooklyn Law School was established around the principle that legal education should be accessible to working people, immigrants, women, and students from varied backgrounds. Rivera later undertook postgraduate study at the University of Pennsylvania and received a Reginald Heber Smith Fellowship in Poverty Law.

In 1970, after moving from legal services into television reporting, Rivera attended a summer journalism fellowship at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Columbia's journalism school, founded in 1912 through Joseph Pulitzer's initiative, had become one of the leading American institutions for professional reporting and broadcast journalism.

Career

Rivera began his professional life in law. After graduating from Brooklyn Law School, he worked with Community Action for Legal Services in lower Manhattan and represented members of the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican activist organization concerned with poverty, discrimination, and community rights. His visibility as an advocate brought him to the attention of WABC news director Al Primo, who recruited him as a television reporter in 1970.

At WABC's Eyewitness News, Rivera developed an investigative style centered on public institutions and social injustice. His report on the mistreatment of residents at Willowbrook State School on Staten Island brought national attention to conditions at the institution and won major journalism recognition. Willowbrook's exposure became an important episode in the broader movement toward deinstitutionalization and improved legal protections for people with intellectual disabilities.

Rivera founded Maravilla Productions in 1973 and produced Good Night America for ABC from 1974 to 1976 while continuing his reporting work. He subsequently worked on Good Morning America and joined ABC News, becoming a chief reporter for 20/20 in 1978. His coverage of Elvis Presley's death and prescription-drug addiction, as well as other investigative reports, helped establish him as a nationally known television journalist.

In 1987, Rivera began hosting the syndicated talk show Geraldo, later known as The Geraldo Rivera Show. The program combined celebrity interviews, confrontational discussions, investigative segments, and controversial subjects; it continued until 1998. Rivera also hosted the 1986 television special The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults, a highly publicized broadcast that became one of the defining spectacles of his television career.

Rivera hosted Rivera Live on CNBC beginning in 1994 and covered the O. J. Simpson trial through interviews with lawyers and commentators. In 1998 he joined NBC's Today and hosted Upfront Tonight on CNBC. He joined Fox News in 2001 as a war correspondent and senior correspondent, covering Afghanistan, Iraq, natural disasters, and major criminal and political stories. He later hosted Geraldo at Large and appeared as a rotating co-host of The Five.

Rivera's Fox News career ended in 2023. In February 2024, NewsNation announced him as a correspondent-at-large, a role involving appearances across the network's daytime and primetime programming. His long broadcasting career has included reporting, documentary work, interview programs, political commentary, and coverage from international conflict zones.

Achievements

• Rivera's 1972 investigation of Willowbrook State School exposed the abuse and neglect of residents with intellectual disabilities and brought national attention to conditions in large state institutions.

• Rivera helped establish investigative television reporting as a major element of popular broadcast news through his work at WABC, ABC News, 20/20, NBC, CNBC, Fox News, and NewsNation.

• He reported from international conflict zones and major breaking-news events, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and other wars and disasters.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Miguel Robles—So Far

    (A documented early book by Rivera, published by Harcourt ...)

    1973

• memoir

  • Exposing Myself

    (Rivera's memoir of his bicultural upbringing, legal caree...)

    1992
  • The Geraldo Show: A Memoir

    (A memoir covering Rivera's public life, television career...)

    2018

• nonfiction book

  • His Panic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S.

    (An examination of Hispanic immigration, anti-Hispanic pre...)

    2008
  • Willowbrook: A Report on How It Is and Why It Doesn't Have to Be That Way

    (A book-length account of Rivera's investigation of Willow...)

    1972
  • The Great Progression: How Hispanics Will Lead America to a New Era of Prosperity

    (A discussion of Hispanic demographic growth, economic par...)

    2009

  • A Special Kind of Courage: Profiles of Young Americans

    (A collection of profiles of young Americans written by Ri...)

    1977
  • Puerto Rico: Island of Contrasts

    (A book about Puerto Rico, with photographs by William Neg...)

    1973

Religion

Rivera was raised in the Jewish faith and has publicly identified with his Jewish heritage. His religious background developed within an interfaith and intercultural family in New York, where Jewish observance existed alongside his father's Puerto Rican identity.

Judaism is a monotheistic religious tradition rooted in the Hebrew Bible, rabbinic interpretation, communal practice, and the ethical obligations of justice, charity, and responsibility. Rivera's public identity has frequently connected Jewish and Puerto Rican elements of his family history.

Politics

Rivera is a registered Republican and has described himself as associated with the moderate Republican tradition of the Northeast. He voted for Barack Obama in 2012 while retaining his Republican registration, reflecting a political outlook that has not always followed the party's prevailing positions.

His political commentary has combined conservative identification with socially liberal and pro-immigration views. His book His Panic criticized anti-Hispanic prejudice and argued that the growth of the Hispanic population was central to the future of American civic and political life. During his broadcasting career, Rivera's political identity developed within the Republican Party's changing relationship to immigration, media culture, and conservative populism.

Views

Rivera's journalism has repeatedly emphasized exposure of institutional abuse, attention to marginalized communities, and the use of mass media to force public discussion. His Willowbrook reporting treated television as an instrument of advocacy as well as observation, while his later books and broadcasts addressed immigration, ethnicity, war, crime, and the responsibilities of public commentators.

His writing about Hispanic identity argues that American prosperity and civic life are inseparable from the country's Latino population. Rivera's public outlook combines belief in vigorous personal expression with an emphasis on ethnic pluralism, social mobility, and the need to confront prejudice.

Membership

Rivera participated in the Young Lords while representing members of the organization as a legal advocate. The Young Lords were a Puerto Rican and Latino activist group that addressed housing, health care, education, and economic inequality in urban communities during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

He was also associated with Community Action for Legal Services, an antipoverty legal-services organization serving low-income residents of New York City.

• Served as an attorney and public advocate for the organization.

  Young Lords , United States

  1968 - 1970

Personality

Rivera's public career is marked by an assertive, competitive, and confrontational broadcasting style. His investigative reporting, talk-show interviews, and political commentary have repeatedly placed him at the center of contentious public debates.

Interests

• Rivera is an avid sailor who has circumnavigated the globe, skippered Marion-to-Bermuda races, and taken his boat Voyager up the Amazon River. He has also supported education and programs assisting autistic people.

• Politicians

  Rivera has identified moderate Republican figures from the northeastern United States as political heroes. He has also maintained a longstanding personal and public association with Donald Trump, although their political relationship has included disagreements.

• Sport & Clubs

  Lacrosse; sailing

Connections

Rivera's parents were Cruz Rivera and Lillian Friedman. His family history joined Puerto Rican and Jewish backgrounds, a combination he has discussed extensively in autobiographical writing and interviews.

Rivera married Linda Coblentz in 1965; they divorced in 1969. He married Edith Vonnegut in 1971 and Sherryl Raymond in 1976, with both marriages ending in divorce. He married C. C. Dyer in 1987; they divorced in 2000. In 2003 he married Erica Michelle Levy. His children include Gabriel Miguel, Isabella Holmes, Simone Cruickshank, and Sol Liliana, as well as Cruz from an earlier relationship.

Father:

Cruz Rivera

Rivera's father was born in Puerto Rico and worked as a cook and taxi driver.

Mother:

Lillian Friedman

Rivera's mother came from a Jewish family.

Spouse:

Linda Coblentz

Rivera's first wife; they married in 1965 and divorced in 1969.

Spouse:

Edith Vonnegut

Rivera's second wife; they married in 1971 and later divorced.

Spouse:

Sherryl Raymond

Rivera's third wife; they married in 1976 and divorced in 1984.

Spouse:

C. C. Dyer

Rivera's fourth wife; they married in 1987 and divorced in 2000.

Spouse:

Erica Michelle Levy

Rivera's wife since 2003.

Son:

Cruz Rivera

Rivera's son from an earlier relationship.

Son:

Gabriel Miguel

Rivera's son with Sherryl Raymond.

Daughter:

Isabella Holmes

Rivera's daughter with C. C. Dyer.

Daughter:

Simone Cruickshank

Rivera's daughter with C. C. Dyer.

Daughter:

Sol Liliana

Rivera's daughter with Erica Michelle Levy.

References

• About Geraldo Official biography describing Rivera's education, legal work, television and war reporting, books, awards, sailing interests, family, and NewsNation role.
• NewsNation Signs Geraldo Rivera as Correspondent-at-Large Announcement of Rivera's appointment as NewsNation correspondent-at-large after his Fox News career.
  2024
• Class of 1969: Geraldo Rivera Brooklyn Law School alumni profile documenting Rivera's Juris Doctor degree and early legal work with the New York Legal Aid Society and Young Lords.
• Our History and Mission Institutional history of the University of Arizona, where Rivera studied and earned his Bachelor of Science degree.
• Books Official bibliography and descriptions of Rivera's books, including Exposing Myself, His Panic, and The Geraldo Show.