Law professor and podcast host Kate Shaw was all in with Chris Hayes long before his MSNBC program, All In With Chris Hayes, existed.
The duo first met at Brown University back in the late 1990s when they were both freshmen there. After their love outlasted those college years, they got married in 2007 and now raise their three children together, Ryan, Anya and David. Hayes and Shaw have managed to maintain their busy work schedules and collaborate on crossover podcast episodes while also keeping their romance alive.
Both the news anchor and the Cardozo Law professor often share sweet relationship moments on Instagram and celebrate each other in their captions. For their 13th wedding anniversary, Shaw shared a family photo and wrote to her husband, “Thirteen years and this brood later I still think you’re the dreamiest.”
On July 14, 2023, Hayes posted a photo of himself and his wife sharing a kiss and called her “the love of my life, my ride or ride, the best person I know” in honor of their 16th anniversary.
So, who is Chris Hayes' wife? Here is everything to know about Kate Shaw and her relationship with the political commentator.
She’s from Chicago
According to Podcast Magazine, Shaw was raised in Chicago. After living in Providence, Rhode Island during her years at Brown University, she returned to Illinois to attend Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law from 2003 to 2006, according to her LinkedIn.
The following year, she worked in Chicago as a law clerk to Judge Richard Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
They met in college
The couple met when they were both freshmen at Brown University, per The Hollywood Reporter. Shaw noted to the magazine in 2020 that fame has not changed her now-husband since his college days. She called Hayes “remarkably intact and largely unchanged.”
“It can be for some people a toxic brew of attention and adulation and crushing insecurity, and I think it can really warp people,” the podcast host said. “And, I think Chris has been just kind of vigilant against all that and he’s been successful. He’s basically the same person I met 22 years ago.”
They got married in 2007
Hayes and Shaw tied the knot in July 2007, and they enjoy celebrating each other and their marriage online when anniversaries come around. In July 2017, Hayes posted in honor of the couple's 10th anniversary and wrote in his caption, “10 years ago today and still beaming.”
The sweet photo showed Hayes wearing a gray suit decorated with purple and white flowers, while Shaw has on an elegant, fitted wedding dress.
The news anchor also commemorated their 15th anniversary on Instagram with a playful, yet heartfelt post.
“On your 15th anniversary, there is nothing you can do that’s more romantic that a big successful run to the dump,” Hayes captioned a photo of him and Shaw sharing a kiss by a dumpster, underneath a sign that read "Garbage goes here, use both sides."
He continued, “Love you, @kateashaw. You’re my everything. Will sort bottles and cardboard with you anytime, anywhere."
She’s a law professor, an ABC news contributor and a podcast host
Shaw is a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, and prior to that was an associate law professor at Cardozo Law where she also served as a co-director of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy. Per the Penn Carey Law website, her academic work focuses "on executive power, the law of democracy, the Supreme Court, and reproductive rights and justice."
She’s also a Supreme Court contributor for ABC News and co-hosts the podcast, Strict Scrutiny, which, according to their website “provides in-depth, accessible and irreverent analysis of the Supreme Court and its cases, culture and personalities.” In addition to her many other responsibilities, Shaw is a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS).
Previously, she clerked for two justices — one of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and one of the Supreme Court — and worked for the White House Counsel’s Office during the Obama Administration.
Over the years, Shaw’s work has appeared in publications like the Columbia Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, The New York Times, Slate and more. She also co-authored the 2019 book, Reproductive Rights and Justice Stories, which covers the history of reproductive rights and justice cases in America and addresses contraception, pregnancy and abortion.
They share three children
Hayes and Shaw share two daughters, Ryan and Anya, and one son, David. According to their parents’ Instagrams, the kids seem to enjoy listening to Taylor Swift’s music and spending quality time hiking, traveling and enjoying their Brooklyn neighborhood with the whole family.
In March 2020, Ryan and David made a special appearance on All In With Chris Hayes. The dad-of-three admitted during the episode that although working while social distancing (because of the COVID-19 pandemic) was difficult, there was one positive aspect.
“For me, the one nice thing is I’m around my family more,” he said before picking up his kids and introducing them to his audience. Hayes emphasized, “Hold your loved ones close if you have them close by.”
Shaw is a frequent guest on Hayes’ podcast
Shaw has appeared on Hayes’ politics podcast, Why Is This Happening?, a number of times. In 2018, she stopped by the show twice to dive into “The Rule of Law in the Era of Trump” and returned the following year to discuss impeachment. The lighthearted description of that episode reads, “Heck, how great would it be if that constitutional law scholar once clerked on the Supreme Court and has firsthand experience working in a White House administration! Well luckily for us, Chris Hayes knows such a person. Because he lives with her. And is married to her."
Shaw and Hayes have also combined podcast forces a few times — they’ve released two “WITHpod & Strict Scrutiny Crossover” episodes in 2022 and 2023 so far. Shaw and her co-hosts Melissa Murray and Leah Litman joined Hayes to speak about Supreme Court news during the special episodes.
She’s the daughter of a well-known journalist
Shaw is the daughter of Chicago journalist Andy Shaw, per The Chicago Tribune. According to HuffPost, he covered news, politics, business and more for more than three decades at the City News Bureau, Chicago Sun-Times, NBC 5 and ABC 7.
In an April 2019 post on X (formerly known as Twitter), the retired reporter praised his daughter. “We enjoyed watching our oldest daughter, lawyer & ABC contributor Kate Shaw, analyze the Mueller report and Barr news conf during the network’s wall-to-wall coverage today,” he wrote. “It’s nice to have daughters who are smarter than us and still happy to share their kids with the geezers.”
Shaw’s father shares lots of family photos on X that include his grandchildren as well as his daughter and son-in-law.
They document their romance and family life on social media
Hayes and Shaw aren’t shy when it comes to sharing glimpses of their relationship and family life online. In a May 2021 post, the political commentator referred to Shaw as “the single greatest thing” that ever happened to him. “My God did these kiddos luck out,” he wrote. “Happy Mother’s Day to the most extraordinary human being I know.”
Their three children are also frequently the stars of both Shaw and Hayes’ Instagram grids. Shaw shared a photo of her kids ready to return to school in September 2022.
“First day of school for these not-so-little kids,” she wrote. The proud parents capture and share all kinds of sweet moments with their children including Anya enjoying pasta, David blowing out birthday candles and more.
ncG1vNJzZmiolaS9rbGNnKamZ6edvG610maimqyVYsCprdZmmqGqmah6qa3Ynqpmr5mbsm6DlG9taWlo