Rachel Nichols,48, has been one of the leading female voices in sports journalism for years. After growing up in Potomac, Maryland, she’s covered a wide variety of sports including the NHL, NFL, and NBA. She was hired by ESPN in 2004, where she’s made plenty of appearances on the network’s biggest shows. Her husband isMax Nichols, 47. Like his father Mike Nichols,Max is a director, who’s worked on movies and TV. Find out everything you need to know about Rachel and Max’s relationship here!
Who is Max Nichols?
Max was born to director Mike Nichols and Irish authorAnnabel Davis-Goff,79, in December 1973. Max’s dad, who died in 2014 at age 83, was a well-known and critically acclaimed director. Some of his best remembered movies include 1966’sWho’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, 1967’s The Graduate, and 2004’s Closer. Throughout his career, Mike was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning the Best Director category forThe Graduate. Annabel has written a handful of books, including her 1989 memoirWalled Gardens. After the pair divorced in 1986, Mike married broadcast iconDiane Sawyerin 1988, and he was with her until his death.
Max has followed in his father’s footsteps and pursued a career in entertainment. Before becoming a director himself, he worked for the record label Tommy Boy Records, viaThe New York Times. As a youngster, he made an appearance in the 1981 movie Ragtime, but his other work has been behind the camera. His directorial debut came in 2006 forT-Pain’s“I’m ‘n Luv (wit a Stripper)” remix music video, according to IMDb. His other directorial efforts included the 2014 movieTwo Night Stand and a 2017 episode of the showDay 5. His net worth is an estimated $3 million, according toPlayer’s Bio.
How long have Rachel and Max Nichols been married?
Max and Rachel tied the knot in May 2001, but they met long before that. The pair actually first dated when they were kids, who met at a Maine summer camp, according to an interview Rachel did with Adweek in October 2013. After a brief romance as teens, the pair lost touch, but Max reignited their spark 10 years later. The pair’s wedding was a Jewish ceremony in Venice.
While Rachel regularly shares updates about her work on Instagram and Twitter, Max seems to mostly keep out of the spotlight, and the pair seem like they keep their relationship to themselves. While Rachel mostly shares photos and videos from her NBA coverage (as well as peaks into her life), she did post a family picture in June 2021, captioned “Happy. Family.” on her Instagram.
How many kids do they have?
Max and Rachel have twin-daughters, who she also keeps private. While Rachel accompanied Max to the premiere of his movie Two Night Stand, she tends to keep her personal life and work separate. Not much is known about her two daughters, but in April 2020, she told The Hollywood Reporterthat they were both in third grade. The broadcaster detailed how hard it was to make the shift from working in-studio everyday to filming from home during the COVID pandemic in the interview. ” Obviously they know life isn’t normal — they’re not going to school anymore and all of that — but we will have these outdoor playdates where I will drive over to a friend of their’s house and the friend will sit in a lawn chair on their front lawn and my kids will be in the back tailgate of our pickup truck, parked and contained right in the back of the pickup truck,” she said about having socially-distanced playdates.
Other than helping her kids with schoolwork and socially-distanced playdates, Rachel also detailed celebrating her kids’ birthdays early in the pandemic. “My kids’ birthday was just a couple days into it and we had to cancel their birthday party and they’re young, so it was all a bit confusing,” she toldTHR. “I made them a very big elaborate cake as a way of making up for it.”
About Rachel Nichols
Rachel studied journalism at Northwestern University. After graduation, she worked for the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel,before taking a job withThe Washington Postin 1996, where she covered the Washington Capitals NHL team, via herPostbio. Rachel began working for ESPN in 2004, where she contributed to some of the network’s biggest programs likeSportsCenterand was a sideline reporter forMonday Night Football,viaUSA Today. She left the sports channel to be a sports anchor at CNN in 2013, before returning to ESPN in 2016. Her contract with ESPN, which expires in 2022, pays her a reported $1.5 million per year, viaJournal Inquirer.
During her time as a reporter, Rachel has garnered respect as one of the most talented sports journalists around. She was named one of the “Most Powerful Voices In Sports Media” byThe Hollywood Reporterin 2015. Rachel has been praised for her interview skills, and not being afraid to ask the tough questions. She didn’t shy away from asking NFL commissioner Roger Goodellabout the league’s domestic violence policy, following an investigation intoRay Rice. She was similarly praised for questioning boxerFloyd Mayweatherabout domestic abuse allegations, while on CNN.
Rachel was the subject of controversy in July 2021, when a phone call between her andLeBron James‘ advisorAdam Mendelsohn was revealed viaThe New York Times. The call, made during July 2020, included Rachel criticizing ESPN for givingMaria Taylor NBA finals coverage over her. During the call, she implied that ESPN had chosen Maria, who is Black, over her in an attempt to provide more diversity. “If you need to give her more things to do because you are feeling pressure about your crappy longtime record on diversity — which, by the way, I know personally from the female side of it — like, go for it. Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or taking my thing away,” she said, viaThe Times. Following the controversy, Rachel’s showThe Jump was cancelled in August 2021, per CNBC. Rachel tweeted about the show ending, and teased that she had other projects coming soon. “Got to create a whole show and spend five years hanging out with some of my favorite people talking about one my favorite things,” she wrote. “The Jumpwas never built to last forever but it sure was fun.”
