Soledad O’Brien interview

Soledad O'Brien at Christie's Room to Grow benefit

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Soledad O’Brien is one of those broadcasters who get around. In addition to traveling the world reporting on one disaster after another, she’s a familiar face on the charity circuit. Time Out Kids caught up with the animated anchor on the red carpet as she prepared to cohost an auction at Christie’s to benefit Room-to-Grow, a nonprofit organization that provides childcare essentials to impoverished families around the city.

So, is being a full-time CNN anchor and a mom of four kids under age eight as easy as you make it look?
It's really, really hard and some days are not fun. Actually, the craziness of a career balances out the craziness of family life. Without my BlackBerry I would die, but when I get on a plane for six hours, I think, Oh, it's just me, no BlackBerry, no one else. It's relaxing! I know that's a very non-mommy thing to say.

You travel a lot for your job. How does that affect the family?
One day my daughter said, “I don’t mind you traveling for an important story, but I don't like that you also travel for stupid meetings.” So I said, “I hear you, sister," and we made an agreement: No more travel just to go to a meeting.

You work on a lot of depressing stories. When you get home, do you let go of the heaviness right away and launch into mom mode?
When I came home from covering the devastation of the 2004 tsunami, I walked in the house and the first thing I did was fix my daughter Cecilia's hair. I had come home to a blond Afro. My daughter has curls and when I asked my husband [Bradley Raymond] what happened, he said, “I just kept brushing and combing it and this is what happened.”

Do the kids ask for perks because mommy is famous?
My girls have asked me to set up a playdate with Sasha and Malia Obama. Why? Because they see them on the cover of magazines and figure they should play with them.

Are you going to try and make that happen?
I won't pull strings for a playdate. An interview, yes, but not a playdate.

Total New York parent question: What school do your kids attend?
I'm not going to tell you. I have no crazy stalkers, but…

Okay, how about this: Is it public or private?
Private.

Have you ever had any awful paparazzi moments with the kids?
Not really, they're pretty respectful. It's the flashbulbs that kill. My kids love having their picture taken, except when the flashes come. At the Costume Gala at New York Fashion Week, the sheer number of flashes was really disturbing. Made us hyperventilate.

Speaking of fashion, who are you wearing tonight?
I don't know. Take a look! [She turns around and lifts her hair to reveal the label.]

Searle. It's lovely.
Thanks.

One last question: How do you stay so thin?
Oh, I can lose and gain ten pounds like that. I swear by the book Younger Next Year. I eat everything, but I do cardio every day at 5:30am for an hour.

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