How Kari Lake met her husband: All about their relationship and two children

The President-elect of the United States of America, Donald Trump, has named Kari Lake as his pick to run the state-funded global media organisation Voice of America (VOA), the publicly funded broadcast network that drew his ire in his first term.
Lake, a former local news anchor and staunch Trump ally who mounted unsuccessful Senate and gubernatorial campaigns in Arizona, will be appointed by the next head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. In a post shared on Truth Social, Trump said, “I am pleased to announce that Kari Lake will serve as our next Director of the Voice of America. She will be appointed by, and work closely with, our next head of the US Agency for Global Media... to ensure that the American values of Freedom and Liberty are broadcast around the World FAIRLY and ACCURATELY, unlike the lies spread by the Fake News Media.”
In his first term, Michael Pack, Trump's head of the US Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA, raised concerns when he moved in 2020 to strip an internal firewall at the organization meant to insulate the newsroom from political interference. A VOA White House reporter was also investigated for supposed anti-Trump biases during Trump's first administration.

Lake, even, attracted criticism for espousing hardline views on immigration and denying the results of the 2020 presidential election. In Trump’s second term as POTUS, she would work closely with the yet-to-be-announced next head of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM).

Kari Lake Halperin, born in 1969, is an American political figure and former television news anchor. She was the Republican Party's nominee in Arizona's 2022 gubernatorial and 2024 United States Senate elections.
Lake, who began her media career in the early 1990s, was the anchor for the Phoenix television station KSAZ-TV from 1999 to 2021. She stepped down from her anchor role shortly before announcing her gubernatorial candidacy, winning the Republican nomination with the endorsement of former president Donald Trump.
Her campaign was marked by various controversies, including promoting false claims of Trump winning the 2020 presidential election and calling for the imprisonment of those who accepted Trump's defeat, including her Democratic opponent, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. Lake narrowly lost the election to Hobbs in what was the closest gubernatorial race that year, but refused to concede. Lake's lawsuit challenging the gubernatorial election result lasted nearly two years and was rejected at three levels of Arizona state courts.
In October 2023, Lake announced her candidacy for the 2024 United States Senate election in Arizona. In July 2024, she won the Republican nomination but lost the general election to Ruben Gallego.
Born in Rock Island, Illinois, to Larry and Sheila Lake, Kari belonged to the family of parents who were natives of the Wisconsin communities of Richland and Appleton. Larry taught social studies and was a basketball and football coach at North Scott High School, while Sheila was a nurse. She is the youngest of nine Lake children.
She grew up in Iowa, graduated from North Scott Senior High School in Eldridge there, and then received a Bachelor of Arts in communications and journalism from the University of Iowa.
Media career:

In May 1991, Lake began working as an intern at KWQC-TV in Davenport, Iowa, while attending the University of Iowa and later became production assistant before joining WHBF-TV in Rock Island to be a daily reporter and weekend weathercaster in 1992.
In August 1994, Lake was hired by KPNX in Phoenix, Arizona, to be the weekend weather anchor. She later became evening anchor at KPNX before relocating to work for WNYT in Albany, New York in the summer of 1998 when she replaced Chris Kapostasy.
Lake returned to Arizona in 1999 and became an evening anchor for KSAZ-TV (Fox 10 Phoenix). While at KSAZ, Lake interviewed President Barack Obama in 2016 and President Donald Trump in 2020.
In her last years working in the media, Lake shared false and unverified information on social media, prompting criticism and acquiring a reputation as a provocateur.
Political career:
Lake was a member of the Republican Party until November, 2006 when she changed her registration to become an independent. She registered as a Democrat in January, 2008, the day after the Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses were won by Obama. Lake returned to being a Republican in January, 2012. She explained leaving the Republican Party in 2006 as a reaction to the then-ongoing Iraq and Afghanistan wars. However, during that duration when she was in Democratic party, she made several donations to Democratic presidential candidates.

Controversies:
In August, 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lake led anti-mask rallies, calling on Arizona State University students to go against the university's mask mandates. Lake said that as governor she would not tolerate mask and vaccine mandates. In November 2021, Lake told a group of Republican retirees that she was taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19 infection. Lake also questioned the science behind COVID-19 vaccines and said that she had not been vaccinated.
Marriage(s):
Lake was previously married to Tracy Finnegan, an electrical engineer.
Since August, 1998, Lake has been married to Jeff Halperin. The couple has been together for over two decades and shares a strong partnership both personally and professionally. Throughout Lake’s political career and her previous tenure as a news anchor, Halperin has remained a steadfast supporter.

Kari and Jeff met in the 1990s when they were both working in newsrooms. Although they have been together for almost two decades, they prefer to keep their personal lives private.
According to TIME, Halperin previously worked at NBC’s Phoenix affiliate and was also a videographer at KPNX-TV, an Arizona news station where Lake worked as a weather anchor. Halperin has since worked for several news stations and currently independently through the Team Lake Vimeo page. He also operates his own video production company, Zen HD, and has contributed to various projects, including the Emmy-nominated ESPN documentary Enes Kanter: Enemy of the State.
In a heartfelt social media post on August 25, 2024, Lake shared, “Nearly 3 decades ago — I was working in the Newsroom and I fell in love with my Camera Man.” The caption continues, “Fast forward to today — he’s my best friend, my husband, the father of my children … and still my Camera Man. I love you, Jeff!”

Family:
Lake and Halperin have two children, Ruby and Leo. The couple prefer to keep the children away from the glare of media.