Tucker Carlson, one of the most prominent conservative voices on television, has been married since 1991 to Susan Andrews Carlson. While Tucker has built a successful media career and amassed his multimillion-dollar net worth, his wife comes from even greater family wealth as an heiress to a large fortune.
Tucker Carlson is married to Susan Andrews, an heiress to the Swanson frozen food fortune. Tucker Carlson’s wife, Susan, has an estimated net worth of around $100 million.
As the Swanson company was sold for $840 million in 1993, Andrews likely inherited a substantial sum, though exact details are unknown.
Carlson’s wife stays out of the spotlight, but her family wealth and inheritance have contributed significantly to the couple’s prosperous lifestyle.
In this in-depth profile, we’ll explore Susan’s background as part of the wealthy Andrews family, how she met Tucker at a prestigious boarding school, their nearly 30-year marriage, and how her inherited wealth has contributed to their lavish lifestyle.
Susan Andrews’ Early Life as an Heiress
Susan Andrews was born in 1969 and grew up in the suburbs of San Diego as the youngest child of Lisa McNear Lombardi and Richard Andrews. Her mother, Lisa, was an heiress to a fortune built by her grandfather, G. Homer Lombardi, a successful insurance and real estate businessman.
Richard Andrews had a comfortable upbringing as the son of a Greek immigrant turned successful entrepreneur. Between the wealth and connections on both sides of the family, Susan enjoyed all the privileges of an elite upbringing. The family-owned luxurious homes in San Diego, Sun Valley, Idaho, and, later, Martha’s Vineyard.
As a wealthy heiress, Susan attended the prestigious St. George’s School, an exclusive boarding school in Newport, Rhode Island. It was there in 1986 that she met classmate Tucker Carlson, who would later become her husband.
The Lombardi Family Legacy
Susan’s mother, Lisa, hailed from the wealthy Lombardi family, who built their fortune over two generations in insurance, real estate, and more.
It started with Susan’s grandfather, G. Homer Lombardi, a successful insurance broker and businessman in Los Angeles in the early 1900s. Lombardi pioneered the auto insurance industry and sold some of California’s first car insurance policies.
Lombardi began investing in Southern California real estate in the 1920s as his insurance brokerage prospered. His early investments focused on industrial properties to serve the needs of the growing Los Angeles region.
However, Lombardi made his most lucrative deal in 1928 when he put up much of the money to purchase the land that would later become the exclusive Los Angeles County enclave of Holmby Hills. The posh residential community has counted celebrities from Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall to Jennifer Aniston among its wealthy residents over the decades.
Lombardi and his partners acquired the Holmby Hills land for around $600,000. Just 15 years later, in the 1940s, lots sold for up to $40,000 each. Lombardi’s estate sold their remaining Holmby Hills parcels in the 1990s for $73 million. His initial investment had multiplied over 100 times.
G. Homer Lombardi focused much of his later business efforts on growing insurance brokerage Lombardi Bros. and Frielingsdorf, which specialized in casualty and worker’s compensation coverage. He also maintained substantial real estate investments.
The Andrews Family Wealth
Susan’s father, Richard Andrews, also came from a successful business lineage. His father, Evan Andrews, immigrated to the U.S. from Greece in 1913 with little money. Over three decades, he slowly built up a home furnishing business in Los Angeles into a thriving commercial warehousing enterprise focused on imports and logistics.
By the 1960s, Evan Andrews ran a multinational import-export business and became a real estate investor in California and Hawaii. He sold his successful furniture business to pursue real estate full-time in the early 1970s.
When Evan passed away in 1976, he left behind a respectable estate for his son Richard and Susan’s two paternal aunts.
Combined with the generational wealth from her mother’s side of the family, Susan Andrews enjoyed all the benefits of growing up as the product of centuries of strategic investments and business success. For many entrepreneurs today looking to follow a similar path, registering a company is a foundational step in building generational wealth and establishing a lasting business legacy.
Susan Meets Tucker Carlson at Rhode Island Boarding School
In 1985, Susan left the West Coast behind to attend St. George’s School, an exclusive Episcopal boarding school in Rhode Island. St. George’s has educated generations of business leaders, politicians, and cultural elites with its idyllic campus along the coast.
St. George’s commands $60,000 per year for boarding students in tuition and boasts many famous alums, including Astors, Vanderbilts, Bushes, Rockefellers, Du Ponts, and more. Parents typically come from backgrounds in finance, industry, media, and political dynasties.
As a wealthy Lombardi heiress, Susan fit right in among her elitist East Coast peers at St. George’s. On this exclusive hilltop campus, 16-year-old Susan Andrews first met a brooding California transplant named Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson, who was one year her senior.
Tucker, a minister’s son born in San Francisco, was also drawn from across the country to study among St. George’s privileged student body. He resided in the on-campus dormitory Newcastle House, where he quickly cultivated a reputation as a controversial campus contrarian given to loudly expressing his conservative views.
According to later profiles, Tucker’s unusual self-assuredness for a teenager likely caught Susan’s attention. Despite having no family fortune, Tucker carried himself with the confidence of old money privilege.
The California teens bonded through their West Coast roots in the foreign northeastern environment. After graduating from St. George’s, Tucker would study history at Trinity College while Susan pursued a degree in studio art at Colby College in Maine.
Although 3,000 miles apart at college, the young couple stayed together in a long-distance relationship – and this commitment foreshadowed a lifetime partnership with shelter from any storms in the form of generational wealth.
Tucker and Susan Marry in 1991 Before Cable News Fame
After four years of dating long distance through college, 22-year-old Tucker proposed to 21-year-old Susan in August 1991 after returning from studying abroad at the University of Bath in England. Two months later, in October, they married in a small ceremony at the Lombardi family ranch in abundant Rancho Santa Fe – a setting suited for the heiress bride, if not the groom of more modest means.
1991 marked a year before Tucker entered the public eye by joining CNN’s Crossfire at age 23 as the show’s youngest co-host. When he married Susan, he was interning at the White House under President George H.W. Bush and just starting a young career in journalism.
Over the next decade, as Tucker established himself on television at CNN, MSNBC, and other networks, Susan assumed the life of a prominent power player’s spouse, splitting time between New York City and Washington D.C.
But while Tucker Carlson was accruing his fortune in media, his marriage to Susan ensured that he now had the benefits and security of intergenerational wealth behind him.
Tucker Lands at Fox News in Primetime
After over a decade of honing his brand of aggressive television journalism, Tucker landed a plum assignment in 2005, hosting the nightly debate program Tucker on MSNBC.
The show’s volatile style, featuring Carlson loudly attacking and mocking perceived ideological opponents, attracted attention, if not acclaim. After three seasons, low ratings caused the show’s cancellation in 2008.
But the fiery pundit quickly rebounded with a new show at Fox News. In 2016, Tucker Carlson Tonight premiered in the coveted 8 pm slot long held by leading Fox host Bill O’Reilly.
When O’Reilly was forced out in 2017 amid sexual harassment allegations, Tucker took over the channel’s most prominent time slot at 7 pm. For the past six years, Tucker Carlson Tonight has been the highest-rated program in cable news, commanding over 3 million nightly viewers.
From a failed tenure at MSNBC, Tucker had leveraged his persona into cable news stardom at Fox with its lucrative salaries for top talent.
Conclusion
While Tucker Carlson has achieved fame as a host on Fox News, much of his lifestyle has been enabled by marrying into wealth via Susan Andrew Carlson, heiress to both the Swanson frozen food fortune and her oil engineer father’s success. Her exact net worth is unknown publicly but almost certainly amounts to tens of millions at the very least.
Tucker Carlson’s wife is Susan Andrews, the heir apparent to the Swanson frozen food empire. Given that the Swanson company was sold for $840 million in 1993, Andrews most likely inherited a substantial sum, however exact details are unknown. Carlson’s wife maintains a low profile, although their luxurious lifestyle is mostly due to her family’s wealth and inheritance.
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