 An alumna of Princeton High School in Princeton, New Jersey, she graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Arts in public policy and studied economics in a graduate program on a full scholarship from the German government at the University of Freiburg.She was an anchor and reporter at WNCN-TV in North Carolina from 1996 to 1998.On October 16, 2006, Charlesworth gave birth to her first child, a girl.