Jennifer Ashton

**Jennifer Ashton** is one of the actors of ***A Million Little Things***, portraying her own role.

## Biography

### **Early life**

Jennifer Ashton was born in California to Oscar Garfein, a New York City cardiologist, and Dorothy Garfein, a registered nurse. Her brother, Evan Garfein, is chief of plastic surgery and reconstructive surgery at Montefiore Hospital in New York City.

Ashton attended Horace Mann School in Riverdale, New York City, where she studied French and English. In 1991, she graduated from Columbia College, Columbia University, with a bachelor's degree in art history. She received her medical degree from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2000. In 2016, she received her master's degree in nutrition from Columbia University.

### **Career**

A board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist, Ashton completed her residency at St. Luke's–Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York. She has practiced as an attending physician at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, an affiliate of Mount Sinai Medical Center in Englewood, New Jersey, and is currently in private practice.

Ashton has authored numerous magazine articles and contributed to a health blog for *The Record* of Bergen, New Jersey. In addition, she has written three books: *The Body Scoop for Girls* (2009), which educates teenage girls on the topic of puberty; *Your Body Beautiful* (2012), which addresses health and wellness issues in middle-aged women; and *Eat This When You're Expecting, Not That* (2016), in which she outlines a diet designed specifically for pregnant women.

Ashton launched her television career in 2006 as the first female medical contributor to the Fox News Channel. She appeared on The Learning Channel's *A Baby Story*, on PBS, and on Oprah & Friends XM radio's *The Dr. Oz Show*.

Ashton joined CBS News as a medical correspondent in 2009, contributing to all CBS media platforms, with regular appearances on *The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric* and *The Early Show*. She remains a featured expert commentator on WCBS Radio and its national affiliates. Ashton co-hosted the short-lived ABC television series *The Revolution*, canceled in April 2012 due to poor viewership. She joined the ABC News medical unit as senior medical contributor in 2012, making regular appearances on *Good Morning America* and *ABC World News Tonight*. In 2013, she became an on-air personality for the daytime talk show *The Doctors*.

In 2019, it was announced that Ashton would appear as herself on *A Million Little Things*.

### **Personal life**

On August 31, 1996, Ashton married Robert Ashton Jr, a thoracic and cardiac surgeon and later had two children, Chloe and Alex. In January 2017, they divorced. On February 11, 2017, two weeks after the divorce was finalized, Robert, 52, committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. On June 6, 2018, after news of Kate Spade's suicide broke, Ashton went public about her ex-husband's death during an interview with colleague George Stephanapoulos on *Good Morning America*.

Ashton has revealed that she learned Transcendental Meditation through the David Lynch Foundation.

## External links

* Official Facebook
* Official Twitter
* Official Instagram

## References

1. ↑ ‘A Million Little Things’: Creator DJ Nash Reveals Season 2 Theme, Teases A Death, New Mystery & Two-Year Plan, by Nellie Andreeva, *Deadline* (August 26, 2019)