Sharon Mobley Stow is an American registered nurse best known as the ex-wife of journalist Jim Acosta, to whom she was married until 2017. She has never held a public role of her own, so the trail left by her name online is thin and often contradictory.
Searches for her climbed after Acosta’s 2018 confrontation with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, and again when he left CNN in January 2025. Readers mostly want to know who she is, how long the marriage lasted, how many children the couple has and what she is worth. For several of those questions, no reliable source settles the answer.
This guide separates what is confirmed from what is merely repeated. Where sources disagree, the disagreement is laid out instead of smoothed over.
Sharon Mobley Stow at a Glance
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Profession | Registered nurse, reportedly in Maryland |
| Known For | Marriage to Jim Acosta |
| Marriage | 1994–2017, according to Wikidata and IMDb |
| University | James Madison University |
| Children | Two according to Wikipedia, Wikidata, and IMDb; three reported by many biography websites |
| Date of Birth | December 26, 1970, according to biography websites |
| Birthplace | Severna Park, Maryland, according to biography websites |
| Net Worth | Not publicly confirmed |
| Social Media | No verified accounts found |
Who She Is Beyond the Headline
Stow is a registered nurse, a detail Wikipedia states and nearly every outlet covering Acosta’s family repeats. HollywoodLife says she is reportedly a nurse in Maryland, but none of the pages reviewed name an employer or a hospital.
Some biography sites call her a housewife, while others describe a long hospital career. Neither claim comes with a named source, and a nursing career of any length would normally leave a license record that these pages never cite. What can be said is narrower: she trained as a nurse, and she has kept her work out of the news.
Even her name varies. Most pages use Sharon Mobley Stow, a few use Sharon Acosta, and which one she goes by today has not been published.
Birth, Age, and Education
Biography sites give her birth as December 26, 1970, in Severna Park, Maryland. None cite a birth record, and one site gives 1971 instead. If the December 1970 date is right, she is 55 as of October 2026.
She and Acosta both attended James Madison University in Virginia, according to HollywoodLife and most biography pages. Acosta graduated in 1993 with a mass communication degree, per IMDb, so the couple’s college years ended around then. Which program she followed is not documented.
The Marriage Dates That Do Not Match
Three different wedding years circulate online. The gap matters, because it changes how long the marriage is said to have lasted.
The 1994 Version
Wikidata and IMDb both list the marriage as running from 1994 to 2017, which makes 23 years. HollywoodLife also uses 1994, crediting Heavy.com. Many sites say 24 years, a figure that only works if the wedding was in 1993.
The 1999 Version
Wikipedia says Acosta married Stow in 1999 and that the couple had two children. If that is correct, the marriage lasted about 18 years, and the 24-year line repeated across the web is wrong.
Wikipedia and Wikidata are both edited by volunteers, so the mismatch suggests one of them is out of date or mistaken. A published wedding announcement that would settle it was not found.
A Quick Source Comparison
| Source | Wedding Year | Children |
| Wikipedia | 1999 | 2 |
| Wikidata | 1994 | 2 |
| IMDb | 1994 | 2 |
| Heavy.com (via HollywoodLife) | 1994 | 3 |
| Biography sites | 1993 or 1994 | 3 |
Put together, the length of the marriage depends on the source: about 24 years from 1993, 23 from 1994 or 18 from 1999. The 1994 date has the most backing among structured databases, though only a marriage record would settle it for good.
Two Children or Three
Wikipedia, Wikidata and IMDb each list two children. Several biography sites say three, two daughters and a son, though none point to a primary document.
IMDb names one child, and some lesser sites name others and post family photos. This guide leaves the children’s names out. They were minors when most of these pages were written, and the family has never made a public statement about them.
What Is Known About the 2017 Divorce
Wikidata ends the marriage in 2017, and HollywoodLife, citing Page Six, says the couple filed for divorce that year. Several sites place the filing in July 2017.
Neither side has said why the marriage ended. Pages that offer a reason are guessing, and the same goes for claims about a settlement. The terms of any divorce agreement have not been published.
Life After the Divorce
Sharon Mobley Stow has kept a low profile. No interviews, books or public statements from her turned up in research for this guide, and no verified social media accounts are tied to her.
Several sites call her a single mother, but none name a source. Whether she has remarried is not publicly known. Any page that names a new husband without a source should be read as filler.
Acosta, by contrast, stayed in view. He worked at CNN from 2007 until January 28, 2025, according to IMDb and Wikidata, and now hosts The Jim Acosta Show on YouTube.
Jim Acosta’s Career for Context
Acosta, born April 17, 1971, started in local news. Wikipedia lists stops at WMAL in Washington, KTVT in Fort Worth and WBBM in Chicago, followed by the CBS News Newspath service from 2001 to 2003.
His reporting before and during his CNN years included the John Kerry campaign, the Iraq War from Baghdad, Hurricane Katrina and Barack Obama’s March 2016 trip to Cuba.
He served as CNN’s chief White House correspondent under Trump, and in November 2018 his credentials were withdrawn after combative press conferences. A judge ordered the pass returned about a week later, IMDb notes. His book on the period, The Enemy of the People, was published by HarperCollins.
Acosta After CNN
Acosta left CNN on January 28, 2025, after nearly 18 years at the network. Variety reported at the time that he might launch a digital subscription product built on interviews and accountability reporting. Wikidata now lists Substack as an employer.
None of this changes what is known about Stow. The pages that cover her mostly repeat details from the 2017 divorce coverage, which is one reason older figures keep circulating.
A Timeline From the Records Available
| Year | Event | Source |
| 1993 | Acosta graduates from James Madison University | IMDb |
| 1994 | Marriage begins; Wikipedia says 1999 | Wikidata, IMDb, Wikipedia |
| 2007 | Acosta joins CNN | Wikidata |
| 2016 | Acosta covers Obama’s Cuba trip | Famous Birthdays |
| 2017 | Divorce filed | HollywoodLife citing Page Six |
| 2018 | White House credentials withdrawn, then restored | IMDb |
| 2025 | Acosta leaves CNN on January 28 | IMDb |
The Marriage in the Context of Acosta’s Rise
Over the length of the marriage, however long it was, Acosta moved from local reporting to national television. The divorce filing in 2017 came in the same year Trump took office, when Acosta was CNN’s chief White House correspondent.
That overlap is a matter of dates, not cause. No source ties the divorce to his work, and none should be read into the timing.
Why People Keep Searching Her Name
Sharon Mobley Stow never sought attention. The curiosity comes from Acosta’s visibility, and Hollywood’s Magazine notes that interest in the reporter’s wife surged after the 2018 dispute with Trump went viral.
That pattern is common for spouses of public figures. Readers find a famous name, look for the person beside it and, finding little, end up on pages that fill the gap with guesses. The result is a body of text about her that is longer than the evidence behind it.
Net Worth: Why Every Figure Differs
Sharon Mobley Stow’s net worth has not been confirmed by any reliable source. Online estimates run from about $100,000 on one site to $2 million on several others, with a common middle claim of over $1 million. None state a method.
The higher figures usually rest on two guesses. One is a share of Acosta’s wealth, which the same sites put at $2 million to $4 million. The other is a divorce settlement that nobody has confirmed.
Pay for registered nurses is published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and a nurse’s salary alone would not easily produce the seven-figure totals some pages claim. Treat every number on this topic as a rough estimate about a private person, not as fact.
What Cannot Be Confirmed Today
Several details that appear on other pages are not supported by any source this guide could verify:
- Her exact birth date and age
- The wedding year, venue and guest details
- The number of children
- Her employer, salary or career history
- The reason for the divorce and any settlement
- Any current relationship or marriage
Does Sharon Mobley Stow Have a Wikipedia Page
Searches for her name often include the word Wikipedia, but no standalone article for her turned up. She appears only inside the Jim Acosta article, which names her as his former spouse, and Wikidata carries the same spouse link with 1994 and 2017 as the dates.
A short mention inside someone else’s article is a different thing from a biography. It confirms the relationship and little else, which is why every detail beyond it needs its own source.
Other People With Similar Names
Searching her name can lead to unrelated results. The town of Stow in Ohio, the nineteenth-century Baptist minister Baron Stow and obituaries for other women named Mobley all show up, and none connect to her.
Public Interest Versus Private Life
Sharon Mobley Stow is a private citizen whose only public link is a marriage. Journalists and readers have a fair interest in the facts of that marriage, such as its dates and its end, because they are part of the record of a national political reporter.
That interest does not extend to her home, her workplace or her children. A responsible page stops where the public record stops, and this one does.
How to Read Pages About Her
A few habits help sort solid information from filler:
- Wikidata, IMDb and Wikipedia are the closest things to records, and they still disagree on the wedding year.
- A precise birth date or net worth with no named source usually means one site copied another.
- Near-identical sentences across several sites point to copying, not new reporting.
- A claim about a hospital, a salary or a second marriage needs a link to a record before it is worth repeating.
- Photos labeled as her on gossip pages are often unverified, and images of her children should not be shared.
Her Place in the Public Record
The case of Sharon Mobley Stow is a small example of how the internet handles private people near famous ones. She did not pursue publicity, yet many sites have published biographies of her, most built from the same few lines.
The useful takeaway is modest. A short list of confirmed facts, an honest list of unknowns and a refusal to fill gaps with guesses serve readers better than a long page of estimates.
For Sharon Mobley Stow herself, the confirmed picture is simple: a working nurse, a marriage to a journalist who became a national name, a divorce in 2017 and a life she has chosen to keep private.