How Many Kids Does Norah O'Donnell Have?

Because the vice presidential debate between Governor Tim Walz and Senator JD Vance is being hosted by CBS News, it only makes sense that one of the network's longtime, and most respected, employees should help moderate it. Norah O'Donnell was a managing editor and lead anchor of "CBS Evening News" before her big CBS shake-up in 2024. She's worked at the broadcaster for over a decade and is moderating the debate alongside fellow veteran Margaret Brennan. In 2001, O'Donnell married chef Geoff Tracy, 10 years after they initially met at Georgetown University (via The Sun). 

The happy couple has three children together: Twins Grace and Henry, born in 2007, and daughter Riley, whom they welcomed the following year. Interestingly, Riley's first name was actually an option given by longtime moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press" Tim Russert. "He said to me, 'If I'd ever had a girl, I would have named her Riley,'" she recalled in an interview with AdWeek. "Tim died two weeks before Riley was born, so I never got to tell him that we did name her Riley."

In 2020, O'Donnell opened up to People about the challenges of juggling her work and home lives. "Right now, I'm a work-at-home mom and the managing editor of the 'CBS Evening News,'" she acknowledged. "I was on a call with someone from the White House and my daughter was shouting at me that the printer doesn't work! Lots of times, I'm on a conference call and cooking breakfast for the kids at the same time. Luckily they have the 'stop video' feature on Zoom." 

While the makeup-free beauty prefers to keep her children off social media, Norah O'Donnell's husband, Geoff Tracy, shares plenty of pics of them, including his twins' at junior prom with their dates (via Instagram), as well as taking eldest daughter Grace to look at colleges (via Instagram). Based on Geoff's Instagram, all of his children are hugely into sports. While Geoff himself clearly enjoys golfing, his twins do too. He's posted about Henry's golfing achievements, and even shared a video of Grace doing a birdie putt. Plus, Grace plays lacrosse and both she and her twin brother enjoy pickleball.

Moreover, Geoff and O'Donnell's youngest child, Riley Tracy, likes to surf, although she jokingly commented, "I look stupid" on her dad's post of her holding a surfboard above her head. There's also a photo on Geoff's Instagram of his two daughters skiing on a mountain, so this family evidently enjoys all different types of sports and even more so when they can do them together.