Charlotte Hopkins is often introduced as Terry Bradshaw’s former wife. That connection explains why many people know her name, but it tells only part of her story. Known professionally as Charla Bradshaw, she has built a long career as a family law attorney in Texas. Her work covers divorce, child custody and the difficult decisions families face when relationships end. Her life also illustrates why biographical details deserve care. Accounts of her wedding date conflict, and online estimates of her wealth have no clear basis. The strongest record of her marriage is a newspaper account published the day after the ceremony. Her legal career is documented by her law firm and the State Bar of Texas.
Who Is Charlotte Hopkins?
Charlotte “Charla” Hopkins is an American lawyer based in Denton, Texas. She works in family law and is a shareholder at KoonsFuller, a firm focused on family legal matters. The State Bar of Texas records her professional name as Charla H. Bradshaw and confirms that she is eligible to practise law in the state. She became widely known through her marriage to Terry Bradshaw, the former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback and television broadcaster. They have two daughters, Rachel and Erin. Yet Hopkins’s professional record stands on its own: she has practised law for decades, earned specialist certification and taken part in Texas’s family law community.
What Name Does She Use Professionally?
The name Charlotte Hopkins is common in coverage of Bradshaw and his family. Her current law firm biography and Texas Bar record use Charla Bradshaw. The name difference matters when looking into her career: records under Charla Bradshaw give a much clearer picture of her qualifications and work.
Charlotte Hopkins’s Early Life and Education
Charlotte Hopkins has roots in Denton, where her law firm describes her as a native of the city. A newspaper account of her wedding identified her father as Charles Hopkins, who was a Denton city councilman at the time. Reliable details about her mother, siblings and childhood are limited. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas Woman’s University in 1987, graduating summa cum laude, a distinction for strong academic performance. She later studied law at Southern Methodist University and graduated in 1993. The State Bar of Texas records 5 November 1993 as the date of her Texas law licence.
Her firm also describes her education in marriage and family therapy. That background fits the work she chose. Family law involves legal rules, but the people facing those rules may also be dealing with grief, uncertainty and disagreements about their children.
Charlotte Hopkins’s Career in Family Law
Charlotte Hopkins works on matters including divorce, child custody and the division of property. Her firm says she represents clients across Texas, both in court and through other ways of resolving disputes. She is board certified in family law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and is a certified mediator. Board certification is a professional qualification. It gives clients a way to identify lawyers who have met specialist requirements in a particular field. Mediation, meanwhile, aims to help people reach an agreement. For a family, a workable agreement can affect where children live, how parents share responsibilities and how finances are settled.
Leadership and Professional Recognition
Her firm says she has served on the Texas Family Law Council Legislative Committee since 2009. It also says she previously chaired the Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists and the State Bar of Texas District 14 Grievance Committee. In 2016, she became a fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation. Hopkins has received recognition in legal publications and has spoken at continuing education events for lawyers. Those roles reflect an interest in the wider practice of family law as well as her own cases.
Has Charlotte Hopkins Written a Book?
Her law firm credits her as a co-author of Protecting Your Assets from a Texas Divorce. She has also written pieces on family law topics. One, titled Who Gets the Family Pet in a Divorce?, was published in Good Life Family in 2019. That pet-related work is sometimes described online as a book. It is an article, not a book. The distinction is small, but it is useful for anyone trying to understand what she has published.
Terry Bradshaw and Charlotte Hopkins
Charlotte Hopkins was Terry Bradshaw’s third wife, not his first. He had previously been married to Melissa Babish and figure skater JoJo Starbuck. A Los Angeles Times account published on 16 February 1986 says Bradshaw married Charla Hopkins the previous Saturday, 15 February 1986, on the Texas Woman’s University campus in Denton. Some later accounts give 1983 as the year they married. That conflicts with the newspaper account written immediately after the ceremony. For that reason, 1986 is the better-supported wedding year. The couple’s marriage ended in divorce in 1999. The private reasons for that decision should not be treated as settled fact without direct evidence. Their shared family history, however, is well documented through their daughters.
Rachel and Erin Bradshaw
Rachel Bradshaw was born in 1987. She pursued music and has worked as a country singer and songwriter. Erin Bradshaw was born in 1989 and became an accomplished equestrian. They are Terry Bradshaw’s two biological daughters with Hopkins. Terry’s later marriage to Tammy brought a stepdaughter, Lacey, into his family. Lacey is not Hopkins’s daughter. Keeping those relationships clear avoids a common mix-up in accounts of the Bradshaw family.
How Old Is Charlotte Hopkins?
Famous Birthdays gives Hopkins’s birth date as 17 April 1962. If that date is correct, she turned 64 in April 2026. Her law firm biography and State Bar record do not confirm the date, so her exact age should be treated with caution. There is more solid evidence for other parts of her life. Her education, Texas licence and current legal role are documented in professional records. Those details offer a firmer account of who she is than an unverified birthday.
What Is Charlotte Hopkins’s Net Worth?
Her personal net worth is not publicly verified. Websites give different dollar estimates, but they do not show the financial records needed to support them. A successful legal career does not reveal a person’s assets, debts, earnings or divorce settlement. It would also be misleading to use Terry Bradshaw’s estimated wealth as a measure of hers. They are separate people who divorced years ago. Without dependable evidence, there is no sound figure to give for Hopkins’s finances.
Does Charlotte Hopkins Have a Wikipedia Page?
Charlotte Hopkins is mentioned in coverage of Terry Bradshaw, including his Wikipedia page, but she does not have a dedicated Wikipedia biography. Another woman, Charlotte Everett Hopkins, does have a page; she was a social reformer who lived from 1851 to 1935. They should not be confused. For an accurate picture of the Texas attorney, her State Bar record and law firm biography provide the clearest account of her professional life.
A Life Beyond a Famous Marriage
Charlotte Hopkins marriage to a celebrated sports figure brought her wider attention. Her legal work shows what she has done with her own career. From earning her Texas licence in 1993 to becoming a board-certified family lawyer, she has spent decades working on issues that can change a family’s daily life. The most dependable account of Charlotte Hopkins is therefore a focused one: she is Charla Bradshaw, a Denton-based family law attorney; Terry Bradshaw’s third wife from their 1986 wedding until their 1999 divorce; and the mother of Rachel and Erin Bradshaw. Her career has continued well beyond the marriage that first made her name familiar to a wider audience.
