Local Fox anchor Rosanna Scotto could not hold back her tears during her first day back on Good Day New York after her mother’s death.
Scotto, 68, was about to introduce the weather on Tuesday when “Raindrops Keep Fallin’” by B.J. Thomas prompted her to break down.
“Sorry, sorry,” Scotto said during a live broadcast on Fox 5 New York, pausing to compose herself. “This song reminds me of my parents.”
She then thanked viewers for their support during her absence to mourn her mother, Marion, who died at age 90 last week.
“My mother would kill me right now if she saw me crying on the air, so we’re going to get it together,” she said.
“I just want to say thank you to everybody who has been so kind and supportive of my mother’s passing,” she added. “Anyway, like I said. Mom, I’m sorry.”
Scotto’s co-hosts offered their support as she composed herself. Dan Bowens told her, “Rosanna, you have our deepest condolences from all of us here at Fox 5 and all of our viewers.”
The meteorologist Mike Woods added, “Yes, nice to have you back. And we get it, we got you.”
It comes after Scotto posted a video to her Instagram account on Tuesday to announce her return to work, in which she thanked friends and viewers for their messages of support following her mom’s passing.
“We’re back in the saddle,” she said in the video. “Thank you for the text messages, the comments, the Instagram messages. Appreciate it so much. It was really lovely.”
She said she knew it was time to resume work because “Mom would have wanted that.”
Scotto paid tribute to her mother, Marion, on Instagram, describing her as the driving force behind both the family and their longtime Manhattan restaurant, Fresco by Scotto.
“To the world, Marion Scotto became known as the heart of Fresco by Scotto. But to us, she was simply Mom,” Scotto wrote. She said Marion—a mother of four, grandmother of eight, and great-grandmother—took a major financial risk three decades ago by mortgaging the family’s Brooklyn home to help open the restaurant.
“Most people would’ve walked away. Not our mother,” Scotto wrote. “She believed in her family. She believed in hard work. And she believed that if you welcomed every guest as though they were entering your home, success would follow. She was right.”
But she added: “Her greatest achievement wasn’t Fresco by Scotto. It was her family.”
Scotto ended by hoping Marion had reunited with her husband, Anthony Scotto, who died in 2021: “We hope Dad is waiting for you with some Frank Sinatra music or … maybe even Frank Sinatra.”
