Tragic Details About ABC News Meteorologist Ginger Zee

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The following article discusses mental health issues, suicide, eating disorders, and domestic abuse.

Ginger Zee made a career and name for herself covering the weather on "Good Morning America." But behind her joyful smile and big personality lie a lot of things you probably don't know about Zee. The chief meteorologist for ABC News has faced a series of challenges starting in her childhood. When she was in fourth grade, Zee developed an eating disorder that accompanied her throughout her teenage years and well into college.

Zee also suffered from depression, a condition that worsened after she was diagnosed with narcolepsy in her early 20s. While on medication to treat the sleep disorder that was heavily affecting her quality of life, she felt her depression sink lower. Soon after, she attempted suicide for the first time. After graduation, she attempted it a second time. That happened not long before she started her first job. While Zee is now happily married to Ben Aaron, she was in an abusive relationship during those turbulent years.

The toxic relationship escalated to the point that she feared for her life during a trip. She had to call the police for help, and they removed her from the situation. Her escape from the abuse and the prospect of starting her dream job motivated her to check into a mental hospital, where she was also diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Treating her mental health conditions and healing from her traumas has been a lifelong journey. Zee has faced a host of tragic events, but she's proud of where she's landed. 

Ginger Zee's struggles with an eating disorder started when she was 10. That year was marked by her parents' divorce and three moves in months. She was desperate to feel in control of her life. She saw the opportunity to do that as a new student on the first Friday of fourth grade. Instead of enjoying the pizza slice she had waited for all week, she tossed it. "For the good girl you always are, this rebellion feels good — because it's yours," she wrote in a 2020 letter to her younger self shared on "Good Morning America."

What started as a desperate attempt to take charge evolved into a serious disease. By the time she was 12, Zee's physical frailty became too worrisome to ignore. When she returned home from a summer vacation, her mother couldn't believe her eyes. "When she got off the plane and was walking towards me, I almost collapsed," Dawn Zuidgeest-Craft said on "Good Morning America" in 2016, describing how her daughter went from 90 to 70 pounds.

It wasn't until college, after years of treatment and therapy, that Zee started to get her eating disorder under control. Since publicly revealing her diagnosis, she has become a vocal advocate. In May 2023, she even hosted a "Nightline" special about eating disorders. "Why is a meteorologist talking about this? Because I had anorexia for almost a decade," she wrote on Instagram ahead of the program.

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Anorexia isn't the only mental health condition Ginger Zee has faced. She also struggled with depression so severe she saw no choice but to check herself into NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia's inpatient psychiatric unit. That was just days before she started her big job on "Good Morning America" in 2011. "At first, I was looking around like, 'I don't need to be here' ... But they assess you, and they were not going to let me leave until I was not unsafe," she said on the "Quite Frankly" podcast in 2023.

Even though her mother had long encouraged her to seek the help she needed, Zee remained hesitant. It wasn't until she landed her dream job that she found the motivation to take the reins of her mental health. "Honestly, I wanted to work with Diane Sawyer," she laughed. At the hospital, she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder in addition to depression. "I was then fully assessed, diagnosed correctly, and given access to a person, a doctor, who specializes in what I was diagnosed with," she said on the "Inside Mental Health" podcast.

Given all the positives that came with her inpatient treatment, Zee would like to see a change in how society views mental health hospitalizations. "When I say 'I have depression' people don't bat an eye. When I say I checked myself into the hospital... eyebrows start perking up," she tweeted in 2021. She hopes one day they won't anymore.

In addition to her mental health conditions, Ginger Zee also faced a narcolepsy diagnosis in college. Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder that disrupts the body's ability to regulate sleep-wake cycles, causing patients to fall asleep suddenly during the day. That's what was happening to Zee, though she didn't know her sleepiness was caused by a disorder. It became a concern when she fell over while teaching an aerobics class, freaking everyone out.

Within the following couple of weeks, she fell asleep again in the middle of a workout in her room. "Someone found me asleep on the floor with weights next to me," she told the Narcolepsy Network in November 2024. "So this became something that was more concerning." Getting the right diagnosis took some time, as healthcare professionals focused on running physical tests to check for heart and other issues. "Why would they ever think that I was falling asleep?" she explained.

After six months of back and forth, a doctor suggested a sleep study that detected her narcolepsy. The right diagnosis allowed Zee to finally get treatment for the condition that was getting in the way of her leading a normal life. "I would be so angry with myself," she said of her frustration with its disruptiveness on "Good Morning America" in 2022. Zee is now involved in the cause to raise awareness, often participating in events and charity runs. "Hope awareness helps people get on the right path," she tweeted at a 5K run in 2019.

Ginger Zee's mental health journey reached its more dangerous point when she was in college. That's when she first attempted suicide. She believes the aggravation of her depression was linked to her narcolepsy, as the suicidal thoughts started after she was put on medication for it. "It amplified everything," she told People in 2017. "Ups were amplified and downs were amplified." Right after college, she experienced her second attempt, shortly before she started her first job at WEYI-TV in Michigan.

Her roommate and then-boyfriend found the then-21-year-old in her bathroom and rushed her to the ER. Luckily, the medicine in her cabinet wasn't enough to be fatal. "At the hospital, they told me how lucky I was," she wrote in her 2017 book, "Natural Disaster: I Cover Them. I am One." She moved in with her mother after her second suicide attempt until she got the job offer — her very first one. She was excited to start her professional life, but depression kept creeping back in despite her efforts to keep it at bay.

Not even her exciting new gig was enough. In 2020, Zee shared a photo from her early days at WEYI (seen above) to discuss the importance of mental health. "This wide, forced smile was not long after my second suicide attempt," she captioned the Instagram post. Finding the right therapist was crucial. "I had the support and financial ability to get the help I needed to treat my mental health issues," she noted.

While she was experiencing challenging physical and mental health conditions, Ginger Zee was also dealing with an abusive boyfriend. Emotional abuse had been present almost from the beginning, but, as abuse tends to be, it was mild at first and often disguised as love. It slowly built up until Zee found herself in a situation that could have ended badly. She and her boyfriend, whom she refers to as John in her book, had planned a trip to the mountains. But before they went, Zee's friends were throwing her a party.

John left ahead of her and tried to coerce her into meeting him before the party. He told her if she didn't, he would know she was cheating. She skipped her own party and joined him. The hiking trip (seen above) was marked by grandiose declarations of love followed by accusations and threats that escalated to the point of danger. "I was hiding under a table in a desert hotel, crying to my mom when she told me she feared for my life," she described in a 2021 Instagram post after Gabby Petito's death.

Zee's mother urged her to call 911. "They got me to a different hotel and away from him. I flew out the next day," she wrote. Even though her experience with John was traumatic, she's grateful that it contributed to her decision to seek inpatient treatment. "In a way, he escorted me to the most healing in my life," she told MedCircle in 2019.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, needs help with mental health, is having suicidal thoughts, or is dealing with domestic abuse, contact the relevant sources below:

• The National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).
• The Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.
• The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.
• The National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.