Lara Spencer is set for her CMA Fest hosting debut on June 25, when she cohosts the ABC broadcast with Riley Green. The booking puts a longtime ABC personality into a nationally televised music special at a fixed point on the summer calendar, not as a one-off guest appearance.
June 25 on ABC
June 25 is the date that matters. Spencer, now a coanchor and lifestyle reporter for Good Morning America, is moving into a live-event role she has not held at CMA Fest before, and ABC is using a familiar face to front the broadcast alongside Riley Green.
1999 is where that ABC relationship starts: Spencer joined Good Morning America as a correspondent, then became a coanchor and lifestyle reporter. That gives this assignment a different weight than a typical guest booking. It is a network putting a veteran daytime figure into a music special built around one night, one broadcast window, and one cohost pairing.
Rick McVey and family
September 2018 is another marker in Spencer’s public timeline, when she married Rick McVey after they were introduced on a blind date in 2016. Duff walked her down the aisle, and the family structure around that wedding has been unusually clear: Spencer and David Haffenreffer share Duff and Kate, while Spencer and McVey do not have any children together.
15 years is how long Spencer and David Haffenreffer were married, from 2000 to 2015, before they said they decided to end the marriage after a lot of thought, care and consideration. They also said their children remain their top priority, and they have remained amicable enough to reunite at events for their children such as graduation. That matters here because Spencer’s family life has been lived in public even as her career kept moving.
MarketAxess and McVey
December 2024 is the latest business milestone attached to McVey, who retired as executive chairman of MarketAxess after serving as chairman and chief executive officer until April 2023. He founded the company and cofounded it in 2000 after seven years at J.P. Morgan, and he also donated $20 million to The University of Miami to help fund the Richard M. McVey Data Science Building.
Over 1,800 global institutional investor and broker-dealer firms use MarketAxess’ platform, which the company describes as a “leading electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities.” That background is not part of the broadcast itself, but it explains why Spencer’s off-camera life has often been paired with another high-profile career of its own.
The June 25 broadcast gives Spencer a clean test in a different lane: live, nationally televised, and tied to CMA Fest 2026. The open question is how much of the on-air load she and Riley Green will split once the cameras are rolling.
