Top 10 facts about Arianna Huffington

By David Shankbone – Wikipedia

Top 10 facts about Arianna Huffington

Arianna Huffington was born on 15th July 1950 in Athens Greece. She is a Greek American author and commentator. She is the co-founder of The Huffington Post and also the founder and CEO of Thrive Global. Arianna has authored a total of fifteen books.

She has been recognized by Forbes on the Most Powerful Women list and also on Time Magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people. She has served on several boards such as Global Citizen and Onex. Arianna had run for governor seat as an independent candidate in the California recall election unfortunately she lost.

In 2011, AOL bought her company The Huffington Post for $315 million but she was given the position of the president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group which was a combination of the existing AOL properties and The Huffington Post.

1. She sleeps for eight hours per night

After Arianna Huffington received a rude awakening in 2007. she now ensures that she gets eight hours of sleep per night for a total of twenty-four hours. She stated that she has discovered that getting enough sleep is both productive and beneficial to one’s health. She also stated, “I believe sleep and mindfulness meditation are beneficial.” Hence, she begins preparing for a good night’s sleep 30 minutes before bedtime. She turns off all of her devices and places them outside her bedroom, except one “dumb” phone that she says her daughters and the Huffington Post overnight editor can call in an emergency. Additionally, Huffington said she lowers the lights, closes the blackout curtains, and takes a hot bath with Epsom salts after she puts her devices away.

2. She founded the Huffington post

By David Shankbone – Wikipedia

Huffington together with Andrew Breitbart, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti co-founded The Huffington Post. They launched the Huffington Post on 9th May 2005. The Huffington Post which is a news and blog site became one of the most widely- read, linked to, and frequently cited media brands on the Internet. The company grew quickly and became famous. The Huffington Post won a Pulitzer prize for national reporting in 2012.

In 2011, AOL bought her company The Huffington Post for $315 million but she was given the position of the president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group which was a combination of the existing AOL properties and The Huffington Post.

3. She has many recognitions

Since Huffington was not only the co-founder of The Huffington Post, the founder, and CEO of Thrive Global but is also an author. Her efforts in entrepreneurship have been recognized in various ways. Some of these include not only being ranked 12th on Forbes’ inaugural list of the Most Influential Women in Media in 2009. But also rose to 42nd place in The Guardian’s Top 100 in Media List. However, according to Forbes, she is the 52nd most powerful woman in the world as of 2014.
In addition, her most recent books became instant international best-sellers. Huffington also delivered the commencement address and received an honorary degree from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, on May 22, 2016. That same year she was named to Oprah Winfrey’s SuperSoul100 list of visionaries and influential leaders.

4. Huffington is the CEO of Thrive Global

In November 2016, Huffington stepped down from her position at AOL and Huffington Post where she was the president and launched a new enterprise and named it Thrive Global. Thrive Global’s main goal was to reduce stress and burnout through media and technology. After it was launched, the following year Thrive Global Launched a podcast with iHeart Radio and Ariana was a host. The company grew as it was well appreciated by people and in 2019 August, Huffington and the team launched the podcast Meditative story and they partnered with WaitWhat, a media company.

The podcast was a combination of first-person stories with meditation prompts and original music hence creating what they referred to as a “mindfulness experience” in audio. It was a successful one that it was listed by Forbes and described it as “A completely new kind of listening experience that blends intimate first-person stories with mindfulness prompts, enveloped in beautiful music composition.”

5. Arianna was the president of the Cambridge Union

By U.S. Department of State from the United States – Wikipedia

Arianna was a determined student who worked so hard to make her dreams come true. After high school, at the age of 16, she moved to the United Kingdom and enrolled to study economics at Girton College, Cambridge. Huffington was an active student who participated in several activities in school and also gained fame. While she was still at Cambridge she was made the president of the Cambridge Union. Hence made her the first foreign and the third female to hold such a position.

6. Huffington as an author

Huffington has a total of 15 books she has authored and also some articles. She began writing books in the 1970s with the help of her long-time lover Bernard Levin. In 1973 she wrote about; The Female Woman which was an attack on the Women’s Liberation Movement. Other books she has written include Onex, Global citizen, and Thrive which was about redefining success and creating a life of well-being, wisdom, and wonder her last book was The Sleep Revolution which she published on April 2016. Most of her books have debuted at number one on the New York Times Bestseller list. Additionally, she has also written several articles for National Review. But also wrote a biography of Maria Callas in 1981, The Woman Behind the Legend, and later a biography of Pablo Picasso, titled Picasso: creator and destroyer.

However, her most recent books, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder, and The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time, both went on to become instant international best-sellers.

7. In the 2003 California recall election, she ran as an independent candidate for governor and lost

The original uploader was Minesweeper at English Wikipedia.

Huffington ran as an independent in the recall election of California Governor Gray Davis in 2003. She referred to her candidacy against frontrunner Arnold Schwarzenegger as “the hybrid versus the Hummer,” referring to her Toyota Prius and Schwarzenegger’s Hummer. The two would then engage in a high-profile brawl during the election debate.

However, on September 30, 2003, she dropped out of the race and endorsed Governor Gray Davis’ campaign to vote against the recall. At the time of her withdrawal, polls showed that only about 2% of California voters planned to vote for her. Huffington stated in her announcement of her withdrawal,

8. She has appeared in Media several times

Huffington appeared on the weekly BBC Radio 4 political discussion show Any Question? as well as the BBC television panel games Call My Bluff and Face the Music. She co-hosted the BBC’s late-night chat show Saturday Night at the Mill for four weeks before being fired due to viewer complaints. Huffington co-hosted the weekly, nationally syndicated public radio show Both Sides Now with Mary Matalin, a former top aide in the George W. Bush administration. Every week on Both Sides Now, Huffington and Matalin discussed the nation’s most pressing political issues, providing listeners with both sides of every argument. Former Air America Radio president and HuffPost blogger Mark hosted Both Sides Now.

9. She had a lifelong interest in spirituality

Huffington has always been interested in spirituality; in her youth, she explored the Rajneesh movement with Bernard Levin, later dating Erhard Seminars Training founder Werner Erhard and becoming involved with John-Roger Hinkins’ Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness. However, in 1994, she published a self-help book The Fourth Instinct. The book outlines her belief that people should rise above the three basic instincts of survival, power, and sex to find their higher and better selves.

10. Her personal life

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Huffington became an American Citizen in 1990. In 1985 she met and married Michael Huffington. In 1996 they welcomed their twin daughters Isabella and Christina. They later moved to Santa Barbara, California where her husband vied for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and he won. In 1994 he ran for the U.S. Senate seat and still won but this time on a small margin which he narrowly lost. They later divorced in 1997 with her husband disclosing that he was bi-sexual.