Fox News prime-time star Sean Hannity is engaged to his colleague, Ainsley Earhardt, Fox News reported on Thursday.
The Context
Hannity, who turns 63 on Monday, and Earhardt, 48, got engaged over Christmas, according to the outlet.
“We are overjoyed and so thankful to our families for all of their love and support during this wonderful time in our lives,” they said in a joint statement.
Rumors about Hannity and Earhardt’s relationship started circulating during the COVID-19 pandemic, when People magazine cited an anonymous source as saying that the two had been dating “for years.”
Earhardt disputed the report in a statement at the time, saying, “Right now I am focused on raising my daughter and I am not dating anyone.”
Hannity also put out a statement at the time: “I do not discuss my personal life in public.”
Fox News reported Thursday that Earhardt will remain as co-host of Fox & Friends from New York, while her fiance will continue hosting his eponymous show, Hannity, from Florida.
What To Know
Hannity has been a fixture on Fox News since its birth. He joined the network in 1996, the year it was founded, to co-host Hannity & Colmes along with Alan Colmes until 2009, when he started hosting Hannity.
His eponymous pursuit became one of the most highly rated prime-time shows in the nation and a regular conduit between right-wing media executives and Republican politicians.
Earhardt started working at Fox News in 2007. She told Business Insider that she “did not know the first thing about politics” before accepting the gig, but developed a political worldview while working as a breaking-news reporter and later as a correspondent on Hannity’s show.
She’s an ardent and frequent defender of Christianity, the military and conservative values. But Earhardt has criticized what she described as “a one-sided story” from other networks: “We are inflicting opinion in our newscasts like never before. That was never done and never taught in our journalism classes.”
Hannity has been an ardent supporter of President-elect Donald Trump since he launched his first presidential campaign in 2015.
Once referring to Trump as a “blue-collar billionaire,” Hannity publicly backed the president-elect’s most controversial stances, including his evidence-free claim that he won the 2020 presidential election.
Hannity gave airtime to Trump supporters who echoed his claims, but also testified under oath that he put no stock in the election fraud rhetoric.
“I did not believe it for one second,” Hannity testified in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox.
This story is developing and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Fox News host Sean Hannity attends The Hollywood Reporter’s annual 35 Most Powerful People in Media event in New York on April 12, 2018. Hannity got engaged to colleague Ainsley Earhardt over Christmas, the couple… Fox News host Sean Hannity attends The Hollywood Reporter’s annual 35 Most Powerful People in Media event in New York on April 12, 2018. Hannity got engaged to colleague Ainsley Earhardt over Christmas, the couple announced in a joint statement. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
