Janet Cooke
Early life[edit]
Cooke grew up in an upper-middle-class, African-American family in Toledo, Ohio.[2][3] She said her upbringing was stressful and strict, with constant demands on her by both the predominantly white preparatory schools she attended and by her father, whom she described as domineering; as a result, she claimed that habitual lying became a "survival mechanism" for her as a child.[3][4][5] She enrolled at Vassar College before transferring to the University of Toledo, where she earned a bachelor's degree. However, Cooke would claim later that she received her bachelor's degree from Vassar and a master's degree from Toledo.[2]
In 1977, Cooke began writing for The Toledo Blade. Two years later, she interviewed for a job with The Washington Post, and was hired.[2] She was assigned to the "Weeklies" section staff of the Post managed by editor Vivian Aplin-Brownlee in January 1980. There, she quickly gained a reputation as a prolific journalist and a strong writer, filing 52 articles in her first eight months. Aplin-Brownlee later remarked that Cooke was also "consumed by blind and raw ambition".[2]
Later life[edit]
Cooke later married a lawyer who subsequently became a diplomat.[3] The couple relocated to Paris in 1985, living there for the next decade.[3][4][5] However, their marriage eventually ended, and Cooke said that the divorce left her impoverished. She returned to the United States, supporting herself with low-wage service jobs and financial help from her mother.[3][5]
In 1996, she gave an interview about the "Jimmy's World" episode to GQ reporter Mike Sager, a former Washington Post colleague whom she had dated briefly during her time there.[12] Cooke and Sager sold the movie rights to the story to Tri-Star Pictures for $1.6 million, but the project never advanced past the script stage.[3][13]
In 2016, Sager wrote in the Columbia Journalism Review that Cooke "is living within the borders of the continental United States, within a family setting, and pursuing a career that does not primarily involve writing".[4]