Trivia

Both parents were immigrants. Father was Australian, mother was Cuban.

Her name means "the Blessed Virgin Mary of Solitude" in Spanish.

Her mother, Estela Lucrecia (Marquetti y Mendieta), was a black high school teacher from Havana, Cuba, and her father, Edward Ephram O'Brien, was a white Australian, a mechanical engineer, who was of three quarters Irish and one quarter Scottish descent. Soledad has been honored by African-American, Hispanic-American, and Irish-American groups for her contributions to journalism. She studied at Smithtown High School East in St. James, N.Y., and went to Harvard, but dropped out at age 21 to become a newswriter and producer at Boston's WBZ-TV.

Friend of Spike Lee.

Attended Radcliffe College from 1984 through 1988 with a pre-med major, before dropping out to take a job at WBZ-TV. She returned to college and graduated from Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and American Literature in 2000.

Is the 5th of 6 children in the family of Estela Lucrecia (Marquetti y Mendieta) and Edward Ephram O'Brien, who were married from 1950 to her father's death in 2019. She has 3 older sisters, one older brother, and one younger brother: law professor Maria (born 1961), corporate lawyer Cecilia (born 1962), businessman Tony (born 1963), eye surgeon Estela (born 1964), and anesthesiologist Orestes (born 1967).

Mother, with husband Brad Raymond, of four children: two daughters, Sofia Elizabeth Raymond (b. October 23, 2000) and Cecilia Raymond (b. March 20, 2002), and twin sons, Charles Raymond and Jackson Raymond (b. August 30, 2004).

Voted one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World 2000 by People Magazine.

She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. O'Brien also serves on the board of directors for The Harlem School for the Arts.

Her parents died 40 days apart in 2019.

Aunt of Antonia Hylton.