Chris Matthews

About Chris Matthews

Christopher Matthews (born December 17, 1945) is an American television talk show host and pundit, known for a nightly hour-long talk show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, which is televised on the American cable television channel MSNBC. On weekends he hosts the syndicated NBC News-produced panel discussion program, The Chris Matthews Show. Matthews makes frequent appearances as a political commentator on many NBC and MSNBC programs.

Matthews, a Philadelphia native, is an Roman Catholic of Irish descent who attended La Salle College High School. He is a 1967 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross, and did graduate work in economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Matthews served in the Peace Corps in Swaziland from 1968 to 1970 as a trade development advisor. In 2002 he was hospitalized with malaria, which he evidently contracted on one of his visits that year to Africa or Texas. He has also had other health problems, including diabetes and pneumonia, of which he spoke briefly on his MSNBC TV show Hardball with Chris Matthews on August 19, 2008.

Matthews is married to Kathleen Matthews, who anchored News 7 on WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C, before accepting a position as an Executive Vice President with J.W. Marriott. The couple has three children: Michael, Thomas and Caroline. His brother Jim Matthews is a County Commissioner in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.