Huffington was born Ariadnē-Anna Stasinopoúlou (Αριάδνη-Άννα Στασινοπούλου) in Athens, Greece, in 1950, the daughter of Konstantinos (a journalist and management consultant) and Elli (née Georgiadi) Stasinopoulou, and is the sister of Agapi (an author, speaker, and performer). She moved to the United Kingdom at the age of 16 and studied economics at Girton College, Cambridge, where she was the first foreign, and third female president of the Cambridge Union. She studied abroad in India, and told IANS in an email interview “India has long held a special place in my heart, from the time I went to study comparative religion at Visva-Bharati University”.

In 1971, Huffington appeared in an edition of Face the Music along with Bernard Levin. A relationship developed, of which she wrote, after his death: “He wasn’t just the big love of my life, he was a mentor as a writer and a role model as a thinker.” Huffington began writing books in the 1970s, with editorial help from Levin. The two traveled to music festivals around the world for the BBC. They spent summers patronizing three-star restaurants in France. At the age of 30, she remained deeply in love with him but longed to have children; Levin never wanted to marry or have children. Huffington concluded that she had to break away and moved to New York in 1980.

In 1973, Arianna (as Stasinopoúlou) wrote a book titled The Female Woman, attacking the Women’s Liberation movement in general and Germaine Greer’s 1970 The Female Eunuch in particular. In the book she wrote, “Women’s Lib claims that the achievement of total liberation would transform the lives of all women for the better; the truth is that it would transform only the lives of women with strong lesbian tendencies.”

In the late 1980s, Huffington wrote several articles for National Review. In 1981, she wrote a biography of Maria Callas, Maria Callas – The Woman Behind the Legend, and in 1989, a biography of Pablo Picasso, Picasso: Creator and Destroyer.

Huffington was accused of plagiarism for copying material for her book Maria Callas (1981); the claims were settled out of court in 1981, with Callas’ biographer Gerald Fitzgerald being paid “in the low five figures”.

Huffington is Greek by birth and became a naturalized American citizen in 1990. She met her husband Michael Huffington in 1985. They were married a year later, on April 12, 1986, and have two daughters, Isabella and Christina.

The couple later moved to Santa Barbara, California, and, in 1992, Michael ran as a Republican for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, winning the election by a significant margin. In 1994, he narrowly lost the race for the U.S. Senate seat in California to incumbent Dianne Feinstein.

Huffington rose to national U.S. prominence during the unsuccessful Senate bid in 1994 by her then husband, Michael Huffington, a Republican. She became known as a reliable supporter of conservative causes such as Newt Gingrich’s “Republican Revolution” and Bob Dole’s 1996 candidacy for president. She teamed up with liberal comedian Al Franken as the conservative half of “Strange Bedfellows” during Comedy Central’s coverage of the 1996 U.S. presidential election. For her work, she and the writing team of Politically Incorrect were nominated for a 1997 Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Music Program.

Lydia Gasman, an art history professor at the University of Virginia, has claimed that Huffington’s 1988 biography of Pablo Picasso, Picasso: Creator and Destroyer, included themes similar to those in her unpublished four-volume PhD thesis. “What she did was steal twenty years of my work”, Gasman told Maureen Orth in 1994. Gasman did not file suit.

Huffington has had a lifelong interest in spirituality; in her youth, together with Bernard Levin, she explored the Rajneesh movement, later dating est founder Werner Erhard and going on to become affiliated with John-Roger Hinkins’ Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness. In 1994, she published a self-help book titled The Fourth Instinct, outlining her view that people should rise above the three basic instincts of survival, power, and sex to find their higher and better selves.

The couple divorced in 1997. In 1998, Michael Huffington disclosed that he was bisexual, saying, “I know now that my sexuality is part of who I am, I’ve been through a long process of finding out the truth about me.” He stated, “In December 1985, in my Houston townhouse I sat down with [Arianna] and told her that I had dated women and men so that she would be aware of it … The good news was that it was not an issue for her.”

Huffington, of Greek background, opposed the NATO intervention in Serbia during the Yugoslav Wars and in 2000, she instigated the “Shadow Conventions”, which appeared at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia and the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles at Patriotic Hall.

Huffington was an independent candidate in the 2003 recall election of California Governor Gray Davis. She described her candidacy against frontrunner Arnold Schwarzenegger as “the hybrid versus the Hummer”, making reference to her ownership of a hybrid vehicle, the Toyota Prius, and Schwarzenegger’s Hummer. The two would proceed to have a high-profile clash during the election’s debate, during which both candidates were rebuked for making personal attacks.

She dropped out of the race on September 30, 2003, and endorsed Governor Gray Davis’ campaign to vote against the recall. Polls showed that only about 2 percent of California voters planned to vote for her at the time of her withdrawal. Though she failed to stop the recall, Huffington’s name remained on the ballot and she placed 5th, capturing 47,505 votes – less than 1% of the vote.

In a 2004 appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, she announced her endorsement of John Kerry by saying, “When your house is burning down, you don’t worry about the remodeling.” Huffington was a panel speaker during the 2005 California Democratic Party State Convention, held in Los Angeles. She also spoke at the 2004 College Democrats of America Convention in Boston, which was held in conjunction with the 2004 Democratic National Convention. She was also a regular panelist on the nationally syndicated weekend radio program, Both Sides Now with Huffington & Matalin, hosted by Mark Green.

In 2005, Huffington founded The Huffington Post (now known as HuffPost) with Andrew Breitbart, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti. It was launched on May 9, 2005, as a commentary outlet, blog, and an alternative to news aggregators such as the Drudge Report. The site historically published work from both paid staff writers and reporters and unpaid bloggers. In February 2011, AOL acquired The Huffington Post for US$315 million, making Huffington editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group. In 2012, The Huffington Post became the first commercially run United States digital media enterprise to win a Pulitzer Prize. In 2016, Huffington officially departed from The Huffington Post.

In November 2008, Huffington joined the cast of Seth MacFarlane’s animated series The Cleveland Show, where she lent her voice to the wife of Tim the Bear, also named Arianna.

Huffington participated in the 24th annual “Distinguished Speaker Series” at the University at Buffalo, New York, on September 16, 2010. She headlined a debate against radio co-host Mary Matalin on current world events, political issues, and the local Buffalo economy. The University at Buffalo “Distinguished Speaker Series” has featured a multitude of world-renowned politicians and celebrities such as Tony Blair, Bill Nye, Jon Stewart, and the Dalai Lama.

Huffington offered to provide as many buses as necessary to transport those who wanted to go to Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on October 30, 2010, from The Huffington Post headquarters in New York City. Ultimately, she paid for 150 buses to ferry almost 10,000 people from Citi Field in Queens to RFK Stadium in DC.

In 2012, Huffington became a LinkedIn influencer, writing about success and sharing professional insights.

She is also a One Young World Counsellor, speaking to delegates at summits in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2013 and Dublin, Ireland, in 2014. She spoke about her “third metric” for success and the value of youth leadership.

On May 22, 2016, she gave the commencement address and received an honorary degree from Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Also in 2016, she was named to Oprah Winfrey’s SuperSoul100 list of visionaries and influential leaders.

In 2016 Huffington stepped down from her positions at AOL and Huffington Post to launch her new enterprise, Thrive Global, which offers science-based solutions to end stress and burnout.