Matt Gutman Biography
Matthew ‘Matt’ Gutman is a multi award-winning reporter and ABC News’ Chief National Correspondent who contributes regularly to World News Tonight with David Muir, 20/20, Good Morning America, and Nightline. He is also the author of ‘No Time To Panic’ and ‘The Boys in the Cave.’
He joined ABC News in 2008, where he started at ABC News Radio, he was a Jerusalem-based reporter for seven years where he covered major conflict in the Middle East. He has reported for ABC from 40 countries across the globe. While he was based in Miami, he won awards for his coverage of the Trayvon Martin Shooting and the BP Oil spill.
Matt Gutman Age
Matt was born on December 5, 1977 in Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.
Matt Gutman Height
He stands at a height is 5 feet and 6 inches tall.
Matt Gutman Education
He attended Newark Academy, where he was honored as a scholar-athlete football player. He graduated from Williams College in 2000.
Matt Gutman Nationality- Ethnicity
Matt is an American national of Caucasian ethnicity.
Matt Gutman Religion – Is Matt Gutman Jewish
Gutman has not publicly said he is Jewish but his wife is Jewish who works at Valley Beth Shalom Synagogue as a Music, Judaica & Hebrew specialist. His mother is also Jewish and was a recipient of the Anna Davidson Rosenberg International Award for Poems on the Jewish Experience.
Matt Gutman Parents – Family
Matt is the son of Paul Jerome Gutman and Sharon Gutman Lightner. His parents got married on June 18, 1970 until his father died in September 1990. His mother got remarried on June 26, 1993 to Charles Rand Lightner.
His mother, Sharon is a civic organization executive and poet. She has also published short fiction and poems in “Green Mountains Review,” “Water-Stone” and “CCAR Journal.” In addition, she is a co-editor of “Liturgies on the Holocaust: an Interfaith Anthology” and “A Modern Prophet.” She is also a recipient of the Anna Davidson Rosenberg International Award for Poems on the Jewish Experience. She is a member of Assistant United States director First Official Commemoration of Babi Yar, Kiev, Ukraine since 1992.
His father, Paul was a secretary and treasurer of Pressman-Gutman Inc., a textile converter. He died on Sept 25, 1990 at the age of 42 in a plane crash. He was in a twin-engine Cessna 421 airplane when it crashed during takeoff at Jefferson Airport in Commerce, GA. He was on his way from Texfi’s Jefferson plant to the Greenwood/Spartanburg airport in order to make connections with a commercial flight to New York City. His parents established the Paul J. Gutman Library at the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science campus in 1993 in his memory.
Matt Gutman Siblings
Gutman was brought up alongside his sister Rachel Gutman.
Who is Matt Gutman Wife
Who is Matt Gutman Married to? Matt married his wife Daphna Venyige on May 17, 2007. Just like her husband she has also worked for ABC News as a desk assistant and producer for 8 years (Oct 1999 – Oct 2007).
She is a music educator with focus on early childhood and elementary school years. She is a music coordinator a for ECC and young families at Valley Beth Shalom Synagogue as well as a Music, Judaica & Hebrew specialist. She is a former director and teacher at Music Together, an internationally recognized early childhood music and movement program for children from birth through age 7. She also served as a program director od parent and child center at Temple Beth Sholom of Miami Beach.
Does Matt Gutman Have Children
Matt and his wife Daphna have two children; daughter Libby Gutman born in 2008 and son Ben Gutman born in 2014.
Matt Gutman Husband
Matt is not gay, he is married to his wife Daphna. He is an LGBTQ+ ally but that doesn’t make him gay.
How Many Languages Does Matt Gutman Know?
Gutman speaks fluent English and has said he can speak ‘a little’ Arabic.
Matt Gutman ABC News
He is ABC News’ Chief National Correspondent based in Los Angeles. He reports for all ABC News broadcasts and platforms, including World News Tonight with David Muir, 20/20, Good Morning America and Nightline. He was the host of the U.S. weekly TV series Sea Rescue when it ended in September 2018. He is also the author of the book, The Boys in the Cave.
Previously based in Miami, he won awards for his coverage of the Trayvon Martin Shooting and the BP Oil spill.
From 2013-2018 he hosted the ABC Television Network’s Saturday morning show, “Sea Rescue,” which won the 2016 Emmy for “Outstanding Children’s Series.”
Before joining ABC News in 2008 where he started at ABC News Radio, Gutman was a Jerusalem-based reporter for seven years, covering every major conflict in the Middle East.
Why was Matt Gutman Suspended
In January 2020, he was suspended by ABC News for incorrectly reporting that, during the death of Kobe Bryant in the 2020 Calabasas helicopter crash, all four of Bryant’s children died when in fact only his 13-year-old daughter Gianna perished in the crash.
He was also suspended for two weeks in February 2021 after visiting a hospital without obtaining necessary permissions from ABC News. This act breached the network’s COVID-19 guidelines which stated that any employee wishing to visit a hospital must seek approval from their supervisors.
Matt Gutman Panic Attack
Matt has been suffering from panic attacks for two decades. They started in the form of “rivulets of sweat dampening the waistband of my underwear.” In December 2020, he suffered a panic attack while he was set to go live on ‘World News Tonight’. He managed to go through the report but it wasn’t as good as when he rehearsed. At the time, no one knew about his panic attacks apart from his wife and therapist.
He experienced his first panic attack in college while defending his senior thesis. Years after that as his career in radio and TV progressed, he suffered what he thought of as “nerves” during his live reports.
After the December 2020, panic attack episode, he started confessing the panic to colleagues, friends and even strangers as he had realized sharing was good medicine. He joined support groups,he enlisted the help of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, and the American Psychological Association.
He tried everything to help end the panics including cognitive behavioral therapy, SSRIs, benzos, breathwork, ketamine, psychedelic mushrooms, and other hallucinogens. He says he found comfort in the words of holistic psychiatrist Ellen Vora, who allowed him to recognize the therapeutic power of crying. “She told me we need ‘a cultural rebrand around crying,’ and I’d argue that we need a similar cultural rebrand around both panic and anxiety disorders.”
Matt Gutman Book
Matt is the author of ‘No Time to Panic’. In the book he shares his journey with panic attacks and how he conquered them.
He is also the author of “The Boys in the Cave: Deep Inside the Impossible Rescue in Thailand”. The book is about the June 2018 incidence when a Thai coach of Wild Boars soccer team and 12 of his young players, ranging from age 11 to 16, went exploring a famous but flood prone cave and got trapped for nearly three weeks. When water unexpectedly inundated the cave, blocking their escape, they retreated deeper inside, taking shelter in a side cavern. They survived by licking the condensation off the cave’s walls, meditating, and huddling together for warmth. In the book Matt recounts this amazing story in depth and from every angle, exploring their time in the cave, the failed plans and human mistakes that nearly doomed them, and the daring mission that ultimately saved them.
Matt Gutman Salary- Net worth
As an ABC News Chief international correspondent Matt earns an annual base salary of $400,000. He has an estimated net worth of $5 million.
