• Jenny Taft is a popular Fox Sports 1 host and moderator well-known for her coverage of the FIFA World Cup 2018 and "Skip and Shannon: Undisputed" show.
• She attended Edina High School and Boston University, where she excelled in sports, and graduated with honors with a BA in Journalism.
• She is married to former long-term boyfriend, Matt Gilroy, who is a professional hockey player.
• She enjoys travelling, shopping, swimming, cycling, yoga, jogging and reading in her spare time.
• Jenny Taft has an estimated net worth of over $2 million.

 

Jenny Taft is a popular Fox Sports 1 host and moderator, well-known for her coverage of the FIFA (soccer) World Cup 2018, and her hosting and editing the “Skip and Shannon: Undisputed” show. Let’s find out more about her personal life, husband, net worth, etc.

Early life and family

Jenny Taft was born on the 5 September 1987, in Edina, Minnesota USA under the sign of Virgo and so holds American nationality. Her parents try not to appear in the media, but their names are Mary and John Taft – Mary is a former skater, and John was a famous ice-hockey player who was a member of the US National Team, and as of 2019 is an ice-hockey coach. Jenny has a brother named Charlie, who is also a hockey player, at Colorado College. She is still in a good relationship with her mother, and calls Mary her style inspiration, posting their mutual pictures on her Instagram account from time to time.

Educational background

Jenny attended Edina High School where she started doing sports with deep interest, as she was really inspired by her family example, and wasn’t forced to go into sports. Thus she was a member of her school hockey team, and enjoyed playing football. In 2005 she matriculated from her high school and entered Boston University. There she kept on doing various sports, continuing to play hockey, plus tennis and lacrosse. For some period of time she was mainly focused on lacrosse; she spent more time on the field practicing in assisting, and achieved impressive results, making two assists and scoring three goals during 11 games with her university team in 2008. A year later she managed to score four goals and one perfect assist, becoming the best player of the season in 2009. Jenny graduated from Boston University with honors and a BA in Journalism.

Career

As soon as Jenny graduated from her university, she was invited to work with the New York company entitled “ID-PR”, which is a group of communication strategists working in the field of public relations, media, branding and communication. However, she soon moved to Minneapolis to work for Fox Sports North, getting her first position in the show “America’s Pregame”. Jenny acted as a fill-in host when some of the show’s permanent hosts were out for some reason, so she substituted Mike Hill or Molly McGrath. Improving her journalistic and narration skills, Jenny managed to get a promotion, becoming the host of several shows which were set in Los Angeles, so she had to move there in 2012. In 2014 she worked on the TV documentary film which she also hosted, “FOX Soccer Digital Friendly”. In 2015 she made a similar documentary on the US Women’s Soccer team for the upcoming World Cup, and in 2018 she also hosted reports from Moscow, Russia, covering the FIFA World Cup there.

Jenny Taft

She later made a separate documentary about the French national team. In 2018 she was appointed to be the host of a new show entitled “Fox College Football”, and the same year became the moderator of what became a very popular show, “Skip and Shannon: Undisputed”, hosted by Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless; before that appointment she co-hosted the show, but had to quit for a while to cover the World Cup in Russia, so as soon as she returned to Los Angeles, she was transferred to a new position. As of 2019, Jenny is still working for Fox Sports 1. She also appears on the Discovery channel, and Science channel in a new show “BattleBots”. Jenny mentioned that one of her favorite events she ever covered was the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

Personal life, husband Matt Gilroy

As to her personal life, Jenny rarely shares any details of her private life. It is known that she is married to her (former) long-term boyfriend, Matt Gilroy, whom she dated for several years before their marriage in 2016. Their wedding ceremony was very private; only family members and close friends were invited to come to congratulate the newlyweds.

Who is Matt Gilroy?

Matthew J. Gilroy was born on 20 July 1984, in North Bellmore, New York State USA. He started his sports career in 1998 at the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament, in which he participated in the side of New Jersey Devils (minor ice hockey league). He also played in a junior ice hockey team in the EJHL (Eastern Junior Hockey League).

Then he played three seasons while at Boston University, most likely meeting his future wife Jenny there, as she studied there at the same time. Later Matt was signed to such famous clubs as the New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers and Ottawa Senators. In 2014 he moved to Russia to play for Atlant Moscow Oblast and Spartak Moscow. In 2017 he was bought by a Finnish team Jokerit; by the end of 2019 he would be free from his contract with Swiss club, SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers, and will look for new opportunities in professional hockey. It is worth saying that Matt’s father, Frank Gilroy, was inducted into the St. John’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998. Matt has seven siblings, though one of his brothers, Timmy, died when he was only eight years old in a bicycle accident – Matt still wears his number, 97, in memory of his younger brother as they played hockey together.

Hobbies and interesting facts

  • Jenny’s favorite actor is Robert Downey Jr., and her favorite actress Jennifer Aniston. Jenny’s favorite movie is “Love Actually”; she also watches TV shows, and her favorite one is “Parenthood”;
  • She loves travelling and her favorite destination is Paris, France, which she’s visited more than five times.
  • She also enjoys singing, swimming, cycling, yoga and jogging.
  • If she decides to eat out, Jenny prefers to visit a restaurant with Italian cuisine.
  • She adores shopping, and can’t stop buying new clothes wherever she goes: when she came to Russia to cover the FIFA World Cup 2018, she bought another pair of Levis jeans there joking on herself she was not even going to buy anything, but couldn’t stand the temptation.
  • When she has some calm spare time, she likes to read a book – her favorite is “Pride and Prejudice”.
  • Jenny is a dog lover – she often takes photos with various dogs of her friends or with the ones she makes stories about for one of her shows – she helps dogs to find new families.

Social media presence

Jenny is quite active on several social media platforms, though she rarely communicates with her fans there, leaving almost all of their comments unanswered, though there are not so many of them in total. However, her Instagram is followed by almost 100,000 subscribers. Her Twitter is read by over 61,000 people, and her Facebook page is ‘liked’ and followed by over 16,000 users, though she is not very active there, posting her last photo in June 2018 before she went to Moscow for the FIFA World Cup.

Appearance, clothing style

Jenny has naturally brown straight hair, though she recently highlighted it and dyed it blonde; she has grey eyes. Jenny is 5ft 10ins (1.78 m) tall, weighs around 136lbs (62kgs), and her vital statistics are 35-27-35. She has a tiny tattoo on her biceps which depicts a ‘g’ letter, but doesn’t reveal what it means – her friend has the same tattoo on the same part of hre body. As to her clothing style, she prefers classy and elegant looks, and often chooses feminine suits, dresses, shirts and high heels. Her favorite colors in clothes are purple and blue.

Net worth and salary

According to authoritative sources, Jenny’s net worth is estimated to be over $2 million, accumulated by working hard as a reporter and journalist, travelling around the world and covering various sports events. As she is still hosting her famous show “Undisputed”, which has very high ratings among the audience, her net worth is certainly going to grow in future.


Source: IMDb, Wikipedia

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