Lorraine and Chris Wallace have been married since 1997. (Getty)
Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, who is moderating the third and final presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on October 19, is married to chef Lorraine Martin Smothers. The 57-year-old Lorraine was previously married to comedian Dick Smothers, one half of The Smothers Brothers comedy duo.
Lorraine is an author, writing a series of Mr. & Mrs. Sunday cookbooks. The title is a reference to the fact that her husband hosts Fox News Sunday. Here’s a look at Lorraine’s life and career.
1. Lorraine’s Signature Dish is Soup, so Her First Cookbook was ‘Mr. Sunday’s Soups’
Lorraine has published three books in the Mr. Sunday series, starting with 2010’s Mr. Sunday’s Soups. According to her website, the book came about after Wallace began talking about how great his wife’s soups are on air. She would have a soup ready for Wallace when he came home from the Fox News studio in Washington, D.C. and they would sit together with son Remick before Remick played baseball. Lorraine decided to share the recipes with his fans and the book was published in December 2010.
The book was a fast seller, and was on its fourth printing by February 2011. “Twenty-five thousand copies. I’m stunned,” Lorraine told the Washington Post in 2011.
Each week, Lorraine offered the family different soups. Every member of the family, including Wallace’s father, the late 60 Minutes journalist Mike Wallace, were fans of her soups.
Mr. Sunday’s Soups was followed by two more books: Mr. Sunday’s Saturday Night Chicken (2012) and Mr. And Mrs. Sunday’s Suppers (2015).
2. Wallace Has 4 Children From a Previous Marriage & Lorraine Has 2
When promoting her books, Lorraine often talks about the Wallaces’ blended family. Wallace has four children from his previous marriage – Peter, Megan, Andrew and Catherine. Lorraine had two children with Smothers – Sarah and Remick. Although they have an “empty nest” now, when promoting Mr. And Mrs. Sunday’s Suppers, Lorraine recalled how important it was for them to bring the family together with dinner.
“We feel that it’s not what you say when you’re raising children, it’s what you do,” Lorraine told SOS Radio last year. “And we would sit down, every night – we’re empty nesters now – but we would sit down every night at 6:45 or 7:00 and we’d have six of us around the table and they’re all pretty verbal, our children. We even had to let them take turns to speak because they all wanted to talk at one time.
“And it’s about getting together so you can cope. You learn about each other’s highs and lows of the day, and funny stories.”
3. She Has a Knack for Deconstructing Restaurant Meals & Making Them at Home
Lorraine and Chris Wallace with CBS’ Les Moonves. (Getty)
In the 2011 Washington Post profile on Lorraine, Wallace said that what really impressed him about his wife’s cooking skills is that she can reproduce meals they eat at restaurants at home.
“He will take me out, and two days later, he’s eating what we had,” she told the Post.
However, Lorraine still needed help writing the recipes when it came to share them with the world. Her agent had her team up with cookbook author Brigit Binns. The two became instant friends and spent three months putting it together.
“Each soup has a story,” Lorraine told the Post. “I think that is the book’s real appeal.”
4. Lorraine Raised Show Horses When Married to Dick Smothers
Tom and Dick Smothers in 2003. (Getty)
Dick Smothers and Lorraine married in 1986. When they were married, they lived in Virginia and raised show horses, according to a 1993 profile on Smothers by The Morning Call.
“Now that I live in Virginia I have to own a horse,” Smothers said in 1993. “In Virginia, it’s mandatory to be in love with a horse. When I got married, the family insisted that I take a vow.”
Lorraine was Smothers’ second wife. He told the Morning Call that the two met backstage.
“But when I first saw Lorraine, I flashed on her and then pursued her,” Smothers said in 1993. “It’s easy enough for me to leave California because I’ve been on the road and in the air for 30 years. It wouldn’t be fair to put Lorraine in California where she had no friends, family or roots. It would be hard for her to live in California, surrounded by all those Californians.”
5. Wallace Once Featured Lorraine as a ‘Power Player of the Week’
(Getty)
Each Sunday, Wallace announced his pick for “Power Player of the Week.” When Mr. Sunday’s Soups came out, Wallace featured Lorraine as his Power Player of the Week. He even interviewed her himself for the segment.
“Like everyone out there who has a hectic schedule, soup was a simple solution for me to gather everybody around the table and, even if it was just 20 minutes before we took off for our next activities, it was a warm and nutritious way to share our day and have a great meal,” Lorraine told Wallace.
In 2015, when Mr. And Mrs. Sunday’s Suppers came out, they appeared together on Shepard Smith Reporting to talk about how important it was for them to bring back the family dinner tradition.
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