Novotny earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mass communications from the University of California, Los Angeles graduating Phi Beta Kappa.
She has covered major stories both in the U.S. and internationally, including the 1999 İzmit earthquake, the conflict in Kosovo, the funeral of King Hussein of Jordan and the explosion of a deadly volcano on the island of Montserrat.
In the U.S., she reported on President Clinton’s impeachment, the risks of a chemical weapons incinerator in Utah, Election Night 1996 in Little Rock and the Clinton-Dole debate.
A day later, an apologetic Novotny "retracted" her Kernen allegiance, going so far as to reveal herself wearing a Scarborough "Morning Joe" T-shirt.
On the November 21, 2006 edition of Countdown with Keith Olbermann it was announced that she had given birth to a son with her husband Michael Foley, an investment banker whom she wed in May 2004.