Departing Fox Host Breaks Down On-Air as She Says Goodbye

Longtime Fox News host Janice Dean fought back tears as she said goodbye on air after 22 years at the network.

The 56-year-old meteorologist, who is battling multiple sclerosis, was honored by her Fox & Friends colleagues in an emotional 15-minute segment to close out Friday morning’s show.

“The things that people don’t talk about are when you leave a career, a job, there is a grieving period, because this has been part of my life,” she said. “You guys have been my second family, and this, I think, will help me with that grieving period. Because turning the page on this chapter has been really heavy.”

She added, her voice cracking, “Maybe the pages will get lighter after this.”

Dean, who called her decades at Fox the “honor of a lifetime,” said her decision to step down was due to her illness. She said a silver lining in the change is that she can now spend more time with her two sons and help them navigate life.

“Living with an illness, we don’t talk about this on TV, but getting up at 2:30 in the morning is a really tough thing, right? It’s tough on your body,” she said. “I did it for a long time, and I probably shouldn’t have done it as long as I did. But I think I caught it at a time where I can repair myself a little bit, and part of that is, unfortunately, getting away from a job that was very stressful in a lot of ways, even though I loved it so much.”

She spoke in more detail about her struggles with MS in a candid social media video she posted to announce her retirement last month.

The Canada-born Dean said that, despite navigating the disease for decades, her “symptoms have progressed” due to a “lack of sleep and stress.” Ultimately, she said her doctors recommended that she stop working in the high-stress environment of broadcast news.

Fox played a montage of some of Dean’s most memorable moments on the show to close her farewell segment, bringing her to tears.