Schlessinger was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Brooklyn and Long Island. Her parents were Monroe (Monty) Schlessinger, a civil engineer of Jewish heritage, and Yolanda Ceccovini Schlessinger, an Italian-Catholic war bride. Schlessinger has said her father was charming and her mother beautiful as a young woman. She was an only child for eleven years until her sister, Cindy, was born. Schlessinger has described her childhood environment as unloving and unpleasant, and her family as dysfunctional. She has ascribed some of the difficulty to extended family rejection of her parents' mixed faith Jewish-Catholic marriage. Schlessinger said her father was "petty, insensitive, mean, thoughtless, demeaning and downright unloving". She described her mother as person with "pathological pride", who "was never grateful", who "would always find something to criticize," and who "constantly expressed disdain for men, sex and love". She credited her father with giving her the drive to succeed.

Schlessinger attended Westbury High School and Jericho High School where she showed an interest in science. She received a bachelor's degree from Stony Brook University. Moving to Columbia University for graduate studies, she earned a Master's and Ph.D. in physiology in 1974. Her doctoral thesis was on the effects of insulin in laboratory rats. After she began dispensing personal advice on the radio, she obtained training and certification in marriage and family counseling from the University of Southern California, and a therapist's license from the State of California. In addition, she opened up a part-time practice as a marriage and family counselor.

Schlessinger's first appearance on radio was in 1975 when she called into a KABC show hosted by Bill Ballance. Impressed by her quick wit and sense of humor, Ballance began featuring her in a weekly segment. Schlessinger's stint on Ballance's show led to her own shows on a series of small radio stations, and by 1979 she was on the air Sunday evenings from 9:00 to midnight on KWIZ in Santa Ana, California. In 1979, the Los Angeles Times described her show as dealing with all types of emotional problems, "though sex therapy is the show's major focus".

In the late 1980s, Schlessinger was filling in for Barbara De Angelis' noon-time relationship-oriented talk show in Los Angeles on KFI, while working weekends at KGIL San Fernando. Her big break came when Sally Jessy Raphael began working at ABC Radio, and Maurice Tunick, former Vice-President of Talk Programming for the ABC Radio Networks, needed a regular sub for Raphael's evening personal advice show. Tunick chose Schlessinger, to fill in for Raphael.

Ultimately, Schlessinger began broadcasting a daily show on KFI which was nationally syndicated in 1994 by Synergy, a company owned by Schlessinger and her husband. In 1997, Synergy sold its rights to the show to Jacor Communications, Inc., for $71.5 million. Later, Jacor merged with Clear Channel Communications and a company co-owned by Schlessinger, Take On The Day, LLC, acquired the production rights. Today's Dr. Laura Show is a joint effort between Take On The Day, which produces it, Talk Radio Network, which syndicates and markets it to radio stations, and Premiere Radio Networks, (a subsidiary of Clear Channel), which provides satellite facilities and handles advertising sales. As of September 2009, Schlessinger broadcasts from her home in Santa Barbara, California with KFWB as her flagship station. Podcasts and live streams of the show are available on her website for a monthly fee, and the show is also on XM Radio.

At its peak, The Dr. Laura Program was the second-highest-rated radio show after The Rush Limbaugh Show, and was heard on more than 450 radio stations. Writing in 1998, Leslie Bennett described the popularity of the show:

In an age of moral relativity, Dr. Laura's certitude compels...Schlessinger's fervor is indisputably evangelical, and her listeners believe her to be a paragon, a beacon of hope and rectitude in a dissolute, degraded world.

In May 2002, the show still had an audience of more than 10 million, but had lost several million listeners in the previous two years as it was dropped by WABC and other affiliates, and was moved from day to night in cities such as Seattle and Boston. These losses were attributed in part to Schlessinger's shift from giving relationship advice to lecturing on morality and conservative politics. Pressure from gay-rights groups caused dozens of sponsors to drop the radio show as well. In 2006 Schlessinger's show was being aired on approximately 200 stations. As of 2009, it was tied for third place along with The Glenn Beck Program and The Savage Nation.

Schlessinger used "Hot Talkin' Big Shot", a song by country and blues singer and songwriter Nikki Hornsby, for several years as her The Dr. Laura radio program as cue music and for a national radio commercial advertising for the show.

On August 17, 2010, during an appearance on Larry King Live, Schlessinger announced the end of her radio show saying that her motivation was to "regain her First Amendment rights", and that she wanted to be able to say what is on her mind without "some special interest group deciding this is a time to silence a voice of dissent." Several of her affiliates and major sponsors had dropped her show after her on air use of a racial epithet on August 10.

In 2000, Schlessinger signed a deal with Paramount Studios to produce a syndicated talk show, which would be carried mainly by television stations owned and operated by CBS. The producers hoped to extend the success of Schlessinger's radio show to daytime television, however, the show was controversial before it ever aired, and it proved to be short-lived.

In the months before the premiere of her TV show, Schlessinger called homosexuality a "biological error", said that homosexuality was acceptable as long it was not public, and said that homosexuals should not attempt to adopt children. She regularly compared gay parenting to pedophilia by reiterating her view that "a huge portion of the male homosexual populace is predatory on young boys." Schlessinger was frequently criticized in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT) media for these views. Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), a LGBT media watchdog group, began monitoring Schlessinger's on-air comments about LGBT people, posting transcripts of relevant shows on its website.

In March 2000, a group of gay activists launched StopDrLaura.com, an online campaign with the purpose of convincing Paramount to cancel the Dr. Laura television show prior to its premiere. The group protested at Paramount studios, stating her views were offensively bigoted. StopDrLaura.com eventually organized protests in 34 cities in the U.S. and Canada, and picked up on an advertiser boycott of both the radio and the TV shows started by another grass-roots organization which called itself "Silence Of The Slams" operating its boycott through AOL Hometown.

The first episode of Schlessinger's television show aired September 11, 2000. Critics and viewers complained that the format had been dulled down and did not stand out from any other daytime talk show. The biting rhetoric that worked well on radio seemed overly harsh for face-to-face discourse, owing to the normal sympathetic nature of most other daytime hosts; the radical change in Schlessinger's demeanor from her radio persona left viewers cold. Ultimately, the television show failed to generate the energy and interest of Schlessinger's radio show.

The credibility of Schlessinger's television program also suffered during its first month when the New York Post reported that Schlessinger had used show staff to falsely pose as guests on the show. A September 25, 2000, episode named "Readin', Writin', and Cheatin'" featured a so-called college student who specialized in professional note-taking. On the next day's show, "Getting to the Altar," the same guest appeared in different hair and makeup, and said she was a woman living with her boyfriend. In fact, the woman was San-D Duchas, a researcher for the show whose name appeared in the closing credits of the shows on which she posed as a guest.

By November 2000, advertisers that had originally committed to Schlessinger's show left, and the ratings plummeted. CBS directed its stations to move the show to a late-night slot, or replace it altogether. Other stations outside of CBS did the same thing, while others moved it to weaker sister stations. The television show was cancelled in March 2001 and last aired in September 2001.

In 2004, Schlessinger said that although there is more money and celebrity in television, it is not as meaningful or intimate as radio, and for her television was a "terrible experience".

Libel lawsuit

In 1998, Schlessinger was in a Costa Mesa surf shop with her son when she began perusing the skateboarding magazine, Big Brother. On her radio program, Schlessinger declared the magazine to be "stealth pornography." When the owner of the store publicly denied that she found pornography in his store, Schlessinger sued him for lying, claiming that his denial had hurt her reputation. When the case went to court, the judge dismissed her suit, but the shop owner's $4 million defamation countersuit lodged for hurting the reputation of his store, was allowed to stand. The suit has since been settled, but the terms of the settlement have not been revealed.

Internet publication of private photos

In 1998, Schlessinger's early radio mentor, Bill Ballance, sold nude photos that he had taken of Schlessinger in the mid- 1970s to a company specializing in internet porn. The photos were taken while then married Bill Ballance and Schlessinger were involved in a brief affair."Feisty Bill Ballance says a snub by ex-lover Dr. Laura Schlessinger made him sell nude photos of her." Schlessinger sued after the photos were posted on the internet, claiming invasion of privacy and copyright violation. The court ruled that Schlessinger did not own the rights to the photos, and she did not appeal the ruling. She told her radio audience that she was embarrassed, but that the photos were taken when she was going through a divorce, and they had "no moral authority."

Use of racial epithet

On August 10, 2010, Anita Hanson, an African American woman married to a white man, called Schlessinger's show to ask for advice on dealing with racial comments made by acquaintances. During the call, Schlessinger used the word "nigger" 11 times, saying that using the word was not racist, and continued to use it after Hanson asked, "Is it ever OK to say that word?" Schlessinger attempted to justify her use by saying, "Black guys use it all the time." After the call Schlesinger said, "If you're that hypersensitive about color and don't have a sense of humor, don't marry out of your race." One day later Schlessinger apologized. Hanson questioned the motivation and sincerity of Schlessinger's apology, believing it to be result of being "caught". Hanson also said that Schlessinger made no apology regarding her comments on interracial marriage.

Schlesinger announced she would end her radio show at the end of 2010:

"I have made the decision not to do radio anymore. I want to regain my First Amendment rights. I want to be able to say what is on my mind". Schlesinger stated that she will not retire.

Columns

For several years, Schlessinger wrote a weekly column syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate that was carried in many newspapers, as well as Jewish World Review. She discontinued the column in July 2000, citing lack of time due to her upcoming television show. She wrote a monthly column for WorldNetDaily between 2002 and 2004, with one entry in 2006.

In 2006, Schlessinger joined the ''[[Santa Barbara News-Press]]'', writing bi-weekly columns dealing with Santa Barbara news, as well as general news and cultural issues discussed on her radio show. She suspended the column in mid 2007, resumed writing it later, then discontinued it in December 2008. She currently writes columns on her [[blog]], on a variety of topics.

Books

Schlessinger has published a number of books. Several follow the mold of her successful Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives, with similarly named books giving advice for men, couples, and parents, while others are more religious or moral in orientation. The later advice books emphasize religion more than the earlier works, until her announced departure from Orthodox Judaism in July 2003.

Her 2004 book, The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands, sold well despite poor reviews by critics. It was a departure from her previous books, which tended to focus on premarital relationships and children. Proper Care asserts that men need direct communication, respect, appreciation, food, and good loving, rather than tearing down the husband's sense of strength and importance. Schlessinger's thesis is that wives have the power to change their husbands' attitudes by seeing to these needs, and then their husbands will "swim across shark-infested waters to bring you a lemonade." The book proposes that wives have the power to promote devotion, compassion, and love from their husbands.

Magazine

For several years, Schlessinger published a monthly magazine, Dr. Laura Perspective. She was the editor, her husband a contributing photographer, and her son the creative consultant. The magazine has since gone out of publication.

Website

Schlessinger has a website which contains hints for stay at home parents, her blog, a reading list, and streaming audio of her shows (by subscription only). When it was started, 310,000 people tried to access it simultaneously and it crashed. Certain aspects of feminism are often discussed on her website; she was a self-proclaimed feminist in the 1970s, but is now opposed to feminism.

Schlessinger created the Laura Schlessinger Foundation to help abused and neglected children in 1998. Schlessinger regularly asked her on-air audience to donate items for My Stuff bags, which go to children in need. All other donations came from other people or groups, usually in the form of donated items for the bags. Per the foundation's reports, money not used for operations was directed toward pro-life organizations, such as crisis pregnancy centers. In September 2004, Schlessinger announced that she was closing down the foundation because it had become too difficult and costly for her and her husband to underwrite, and they wished to devote their "energies and resources to other pressing needs".

Schlessinger has been cited as an influential and wealthy donor to Project Prevention, an organization that pays drug and alcohol addicts $200 to use long term birth control or to be sterilized. Her support of the organization has been criticized as unethical, racially biased, and as an endorsement of eugenics.Schlessinger has praised the group emphasizing the voluntary nature of the sterilization or implants, and has said that people who oppose Project Prevention are defending a woman's right "to maim and destroy babies inside her body".

In 2007, Schlessinger began fundraising for Operation Family Fund, an organization which aids the families of fallen or seriously injured veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2008, she helped raise more than $1 million dollars for the organization.

Schlessinger has received numerous awards from both media and conservative organizations. She was the first woman to win the Marconi Award for Network/Syndicated Personality of the Year (1997). In 1998 she received the American Women in Radio & Television's Genii Award. She was on the Forbes top 100 list of celebrities in 2000 with estimated earnings of $13 million. In September 2002, the industry magazine Talkers named Schlessinger as the seventh-greatest radio talk show host of all time. In 2005 and 2008, she was nominated for induction into the Radio Hall of Fame, but was not selected.

Schlessinger received a National Heritage award from the National Council of Young Israel in March 2001. She also received the National Religious Broadcasters Chairman's Award, and has lectured on the national conservative circuit. She was the commencement speaker at Hillsdale College in June 2002, and was awarded an honorary degree as a doctor of tradition and culture.

In 2007 Schlessinger was given an Exceptional Public Service award by the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Education. In 2008, Talkers Magazine presented her with an award for outstanding community service by a radio talk show host.

Schlessinger was non-religious until she and her son began practicing Conservative Judaism in 1996. In 1998, Schlessinger, Bishop, and their son converted to Orthodox Judaism, and began instruction under Rabbi Reuven P. Bulka of Ottawa, Ontario. During this time, Schlessinger sometimes used Jewish law and examples to advise her callers about their moral dilemmas. She occasionally clarified ethical and moral issues with her local Orthodox Rabbi Moshe D. Bryski, before mentioning them on the air. She was embraced by many in the politically conservative segment of Orthodox Judaism for bringing more awareness of Orthodoxy to her radio show. Some of her expressed views were explicitly religious, and are referenced her 1999 book The Ten Commandments: The Significance of God's Laws in Everyday Life. Although her other books have stressed the importance of morality, they are more secular in nature.

In July 2003, Schlessinger announced on her show that she was no longer an Orthodox Jew.

Schlessinger met and married Michael F. Rudolph, a dentist, in 1972 while she was attending Columbia University. The couple had a Unitarian ceremony. Separating from Rudolph, Schlessinger moved to Encino, California in 1975 when she obtained a job in the science department at the University of Southern California. Their divorce was finalized in 1977.

"In 1975, while working in the labs at USC, she met Lewis G. Bishop, a professor of neurophysiology who was married and the father of three children. Bishop separated from his wife and began living with Schlessinger the same year. Schlessinger has vociferously proclaimed her disapproval of unwed couples "shacking up." But according to personal friend, Shelly Herman, "Laura lived with Lew for about nine years before she was married to him." "His divorce was final in 1979. Bishop and Schlessinger married in 1985. Herman says that Schlessinger told her she was pregnant at the time, which Herman recalls as " particularly joyful because of the happy news." Schlessinger bore her only child, Deryk Schlessinger, in November 1985.

Schlessinger was estranged from her sister for years, and many thought she was an only child. She had not spoken to her mother for 18 to 20 years before her mother's death in 2002 from heart disease. Her mother's remains were found in her Beverly Hills condo approximately two months after she died, and lay unclaimed for some time in the Los Angeles morgue before Schlessinger had them picked up for burial. Concerning the day that she heard about her mother’s death, she said: “Apparently she had no friends and none of her neighbors were close, so nobody even noticed! How sad.” In 2006, Schlessinger wrote that she had been attacked in a "vulgar, inhumane manner by media types" because of the circumstances surrounding her mother's death, and that false allegations had been made that she was unfit to dispense advice based on family values. She said that she had not mourned the deaths of either of her parents because she had no emotional bond to them.

Advice books:

Religious books:

Children's books

• Why Do You Love Me?. With Martha Lambers, illustrated by Daniel McFeeley. HarperCollins. 1999. pp. 40. ISBN 978-0-06-443654-0.
• But I Waaannt It!. Illustrated by Daniel McFeeley. HarperCollins. 2000. pp 40. ISBN 978-0-06-443643-4.
• Growing Up Is Hard. Illustrated by Daniel McFeeley. HarperCollins. 2001. pp. 40. ISBN 978-0-06-029200-3.
• Where's God? Illustrated by Daniel McFeeley. HarperCollins. 2003. pp. 40. ISBN 978-0-06-051909-4.

In 1999, Schlessinger was parodied as "Dr. Nora" on the sitcom Frasier. The character was portrayed as having dogmatic and fundamentalist social views that promoted social conservatism. The character was also shown to have a degree that belies her therapeutic advice and was estranged from her mother.

In 2000, in the episode The Midterms on The West Wing, the fictional "Dr. Jenna Jacobs" is scolded by President Bartlet, who criticizes her views on homosexuality, and points out that (like Schlessinger) she is not a doctor in any field related to morality, ethics, or theology, and he quotes Scripture to point out the inconsistency of condemning certain sins but not others. Show creator Aaron Sorkin admitted to modeling Bartlet's diatribe on an anonymous "Letter to Dr. Laura", which was a popular viral email at the time.

Schlessinger is featured as an antagonist in the animated series Queer Duck.