Zoraida Sambolin

Zoraida Sambolin is known as an American Journalist and famous broadcast newscaster.

Background

Zoraida Sambolin was born on July 10, 1965. After the completion of her graduation from Loyola University, she started her career in journalism by working at a PBS station in Chicago.

Journalism Career

From 1999 to 2002, she worked for the WSNS-TV station and then joined WMAQ-TV (NBC) as a freelance news anchor for weekend shows. In 2007, she got a promotion for the weekday’s news anchor position at NBC. She got her big break when she back the host of Early Start on CNN. Getting on a national platform was a huge accomplishment for the hard working journalist.

Personal Life

Zoraida Sambolin got married to Dr. John Hobbs and was blessed with two children. They lived in a six bedroom apartment in Oak Park. Her son, Nico is the eldest and her daughter Sofia is the youngest. Unfortunately, they both started facing many problems together and they ended their marriage. After the divorce from her first marriage with Dr. John Hobbs, she came into contact with Kenny Williams and started to develop a romantic relationship.

Her new boyfriend Kenny was also a celebrity and former player of professional baseball. Currently, he is the executive vice president of the Chicago White Sox. Kenny was also a divorcee from his previous marriage and had five children from his first wife. There were some rumors that Zoraida had an affair with Kenny and because of that she sought divorce from her husband, Dr. John Hobbs. However, these rumors were never verified or confirmed.

Zoraida and Kenny met during an event called Ozzie’s Salsa, it was a gathering in which she was the host. After this event, they started talking to each other through the phone. In April 2010, after Kenny returned from training, the couple started dating. They dated each other for two years and on the evening of Christmas in 2012, Kenny decided to take the next stop when he proposed to Zoraida. They got engaged in January 2013.

The funny thing about their union is that neither of them were looking for a relationship because their previous unsuccessful marriages. However, they both managed to continue the relationship and merge their families. Kenny’s three adult sons and Zoraida’s two kids started living together. She was not a baseball fan but developed interest in the game, just to make their life more interesting and compatible. Together, they are living a peaceful life along with their children.

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Fighting The Battle Against Cancer

In spite of all the new found happiness that Zoraida got from her job at CNN and new husband, fate had something else in mind for her. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to endure a double mastectomy. Though it was a tough situation for her family, she fought with this serious disease and Kenny stood by her side when the going was getting tough.

She gained lot of courage from Angelina Jolie, who was Hollywood actress and had already fought with disease of cancer. Kenny always went with her for every doctor’s appointment. It gave her confidence to overcome her fears and gave her courage to fight this disease. Love and good wishes from her fans helped her to face this tragic moment in her life. On May 2013 she underwent the surgery and won the battle against cancer.

In a personal interview with Health Monitor, Zoraida shared her story about dealing with cancer. When she found out that she had the diseases, she was on her way to pick up her kid, Nico from school. The news had a heavy weight on her, “I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. The cancer was discovered after a routine mammogram. It was at an early-stage, but I was devastated. I wondered, what does this mean? What is wrong with my body? I eat right and I exercise, and my kids need me. This is the wrong time for me to have cancer.”

She held the news close to her heart and was worried about telling her family. She finally built up the courage to tell her children about it after three weeks had passed, “I needed to give a lot of thought to how my kids would digest the info. I decided to share the book Breast Cancer for Dummies with Nico. There’s humor in it.

After getting over the small fear and telling her son, she then had to build up the same courage to tell her daughter, Sofia. She beat herself up until she was ready to have the talk, “She looks a lot like me and identifies with me. I asked her, ‘What comes to mind when you think of breast cancer?’ She said, ‘People lose their hair and get sick.’ I said, ‘I have breast cancer, but I’m not going to lose my hair or get sick.’ Then the conversation was over, she asked me a question about something else. I let it go.”

Now that Zoraida is cancer free, she decided to leave CNN to spend more time with her family. One of the things that stood out to her the most is the support from her husband and children, “My prognosis is excellent. I was used to caring for my kids, not the other way around. You never know what your children are capable of.”            

Zoraida has a few tips for other people battling cancer. One important thing she advises is to have a strong support network around you, “Allow people to do as much as they want to do for you. Loving support is key. My fiancé emptied my drains for me after her surgery. He was skittish about it, but he insisted on doing it. My breast surgeon drew me a diagram with grapes and trees to explain where the cancer was. It helped.”

She is very grateful that she was given a second chance. Now her focus is raising her children because she knows that every moment counts.

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