Judith McNaught was born in San Luis Obispo, California on May 10, 1944. She graduated from Northwestern University in 1966 with a degree in business. Her first novel, Tender Triumph, won the Critics Choice Award in 1983. She won it again in 1988 for Something Wonderful. She received Best Historical Novelist honors for Whitney, My Love in 1985 and for Once and Always in 1987. She received the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award. She was also the first female executive producer at a CBS radio station.