Biography of American Family Attorney Charlotte Hopkins & ex-wife of NFL legend Terry Bradshaw

8 min readOct 13, 2021

Born 17 April 1962, American Family Attorney Charlotte Hopkins is a legal practitioner and author. Hopkins came into the limelight after she married veteran American football quarterback Terry Bradshaw, who played professionally in the National Football League (NFL) for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Her almost 16-year union with Terry Bradshaw was a fruitful one that produced two children — — Erin and Rachel Bradshaw — — before they got divorced in 1999. Notwithstanding the attention and recognition the union brought Charlotte, she removed Bradshaw from her name after her divorce from Terry.

59-year-old Charlotte now primarily looks after cases including divorce, child custody, paternity, property division, and prenuptial agreements. A successful and well-celebrated professional by every stretch of the imagination, she has won awards in Denton county for being the best lawyer when it comes to family issues like divorce, custody, and many more.

In addition to the achievements mentioned above, since 2009, she has shown a huge involvement in further improving Texas family law legislation by being a member of the Texas Family Law Council Legislative Committee.

Just as it is with everyone who is associated with a public figure, Charlotte gained popularity through her marriage to Terry Bradshaw, but unlike many others, she didn’t get overshadowed or relegated by it. Her success as an attorney and author, amongst other things, has made her a relevant force in her own right.

Let’s learn more about Charlotte Hopkins, her illustrious career, her relationship with Terry, life after the divorce, and much more. For starters, below are ten interesting facts about the famed legal practitioner.

10 facts about Charlotte Hopkins

She has served as a chair of the Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists and the State Bar of Texas District 14 Grievance Committee.
Through her involvement in the Texas Family Law Council Legislative Committee, Charlotte played a significant role in shaping Texas family law legislation.
Charlotte Hopkins was previously married to the NFL star Terry Bradshaw with whom she tied the knot in 1983 before parting ways in 1999.
She was, in fact, Bradshaw’s third wife, as he had been known to be married to Melissa and Jojo previously, although neither of the marriages lasted for long.
Charlotte moved on a few years after leaving Terry and met Rick Hagen, a criminal lawyer whom she eventually married in 2012.
She has received high praise and recognition for her work; in 2019, Charlotte was voted as the Best Divorce Attorney of 2019 by Denton County.
Furthermore, Charlotte’s name was listed on the Top 100 Super Lawyers in Dallas-Fort Worth (2005, 2014, 2016–2017, 2020)
In addition to her impressive career, Hopkins is also a mediator as well as a part of the Collaborative Law Institute of Texas.
Charlotte’s ex-husband is widely considered to be one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.
Charlotte has an estimated net worth of $2 million dollars as of 2020, which includes her assets and income.

Early life and education

While there is not much information about her upbringing and family, it is known that Charlotte was born into a wealthy home. She graduated from Denton High School in 1980 and later finished with the highest honors from Texas Woman’s University. Eventually, her graduation from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in 1993 helped her to achieve the law degree.

Charla Hopkins law career

Following her graduation in Law in the late 1980s, she started pursuing her professional career. Over the years, she has been working as a full-time family attorney with KoonsFuller Family law, majoring in cases including divorce, child custody, paternity, property division, and prenuptial agreements. Alongside her over two-decade-long active practice, which has seen her take on hundreds of cases, Charlotte has also been a commentator for local and national media in several high-profile family law issues.

She has also featured in magazines like Lantana Living and ARGYLE Living. In addition to this, she has taken part in on-air discussions on NBC5-TV, which was based on the advantages and disadvantages of “nesting” — — a practice of taking turns to live with one’s ex-spouse during divorce proceedings.

Charlotte Hopkins also worked as a chair of the Texas Academy of Family Law Specialist and the State Bar of Texas District 14 Grievance Committee. Add that to her role as a certified mediator and a member of the Collaborative Law Institute of Texas.

Honored as the Best Divorce Attorney in 2019, Charlotte’s name was also listed on the Top 100 Super Lawyers in Dallas-Fort Worth (2005, 2014, 2016–2017, 2020), the Top 50 female Attorneys in Texas (2005, 2014, 2016–2020), Top Rated Lawyers in Texas (2019–2020) and Best Woman Lawyers in Dallas (2010). In addition to these, she is regarded as the Best Lawyers in America by Best Lawyers, LLC (2011–2021).

Career as an author

On top of her very prestigious career as a legal practitioner, Charlotte is also a published author. She is a co-author of the latest edition of Protecting Your Assets From A Texas Divorce, along with others including Ike Vanden Eykel, Rick Robertson, and Heather King.

She also co-authored the book Divorced or Single? Doing the Cupid Shuffle When Your Dance Card is Empty: Suggestions from a Family Law Attorney & a Therapist and wrote Who gets The Family Pet In A Divorce?. Her years of experience as a lawyer are brought to bear in these books, and there’s an enormous amount of knowledge and insight in them.

Personal life

Charlotte’s personal life is almost as interesting as her professional life. As earlier stated, her first marriage was to the famous NFL star Terry Bradshaw, and it produced two children. She married Rick Hagen on 29 July 2012, after her separation from Terry. Rick is a criminal lawyer by profession and also the owner of Jackson & Hagen Law, located in Denton TX.

As Charla Hopkins Bradshaw — relationship with Terry Bradshaw

At the time they got married, Charlotte was the third wife of Terry Bradshaw. He was first married to Melissa Babish from 1972 to 1973 before walking down the aisle with JoJo Starbuck in 1976 and divorcing in 1983.

Terry met Charlotte when she was 19, although, at the time, he believed that she was 22. They dated for around four years, but their relationship hit the rocks, and they broke up. However, the two lovebirds found their ways back to each other and eventually got married. The couple lived together as man and wife for almost two decades before getting divorced.

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Terry Bradshaw children

Terry and Hopkins have two children from their 16-year marriage, Rachel Bradshaw and Erin Bradshaw. Rachel is the firstborn child, born on 13 May 1987 and now 34 years old. She was married to Rob Bironas, a former Tennessee Titans kicker. Unfortunately, Rob died in a tragic car accident three months after their wedding in 2014.

Erin was born in 1989 and will be 32 in 2021. She is a World Champion Equestrian who has won races, awards, and championships with her horse John Smith. Erin is also a television star because she features in her family’s reality TV show on E! The family has a reality TV show titled The Bradshaw Bunch, which started airing in 2020. By the end of the first season, Terry’s family’s reality television show had become one of E! network’s most-watched new reality television series within the last four years — — it had total views of over 1.2 million. The show also became E!’s new reality television show with the highest rating within the last four years.

Erin is happily married to Scott Weiss, a horse trainer and owner of Scott Weiss Horses — — a company that raises and trains horses into becoming championship-winning horses. Their wedding took place on 6 May 2017, in a Milestone-Morgan Creek Barn in Aubrey, Texas.

Terry Bradshaw (Wiki)

Born 2 September 1948, Terry Paxton Bradshaw is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Since 1994, he has been a television sports analyst and co-host of Fox NFL Sunday. Not just football, he showed exemplary performance in academics and athletics as well. Beginning his selection in the Pittsburgh Steelers right after college, he brought fame and glory to his team, winning four Super Bowl championships. His talent and on-the-field leadership qualities won him accolades and appreciation through several sports awards.

Despite injuring himself on the field and retiring at a young age, Terry has remained involved in the sport. He has also shown his talent in other fields like music, writing, and acting. Terry has a few albums to his name, penned a few books, and featured in a handful of movies.

How many times has Terry Bradshaw been married

Terry has been married a total of four times. He is currently with his fourth wife, Tammy Bradshaw, who he married in 2014. He first married Miss Teenage America, Melissa Babish, in 1972, but that lasted only two years. The couple went their separate ways in 1974.

In 1976, he married Jojo Starbuck, an international ice skater famous for introducing ramen to Americans and known as the face of the Cup of Noodles. The marriage endured only seven years before it crashed.

Charlotte Hopkins was his third wife and his longest marriage thus far. As already stated, their union resulted in two offsprings — — daughters Rachel and Erin — — and ended in 1999.

Terry Bradshaw net worth

Terry Bradshaw net worth is approximately valued to be $45 million as of 2020. This includes his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers for 14 long years, TV, movie appearances, and endorsements.

Charlotte Hopkins net worth

Based on returns from her successful professional career and investments, Charlotte currently is estimated to have a net worth of $2.1 million.

Conclusion

One major takeaway from the story and life of Charlotte Hopkins is that success is loud and can’t be silenced or overshadowed by fame. She may have been married to a famous person, but she didn’t live in his shadow. Charlotte lives happily with her family now and remains in the practice of a profession she loves so much.

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