Janice Dean, the chief meteorologist for the popular Fox News morning program “Fox & Friends” for 22 years, is leaving her role due to health reasons.
Dean, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, told her social media followers Thursday she can no longer handle the early morning grind due to her condition.
“I was diagnosed early and I’ve been on different therapies for over the last two decades,” Dean said in a video message posted on X. “But there’s no cure for MS, and over time, my symptoms have progressed. Unfortunately, lack of sleep and stress are some of the biggest triggers, and I was increasingly feeling the effects of my limitations. Ultimately, my symptoms progressed to the point that I can no longer continue working in my role.”
Dean, 56, was a mostly cheerful, non-partisan presence on “Fox & Friends.” But she did not shy away from controversial issues.
In her 2019 memoir “Mostly Sunny: How I Leaned to Keep Smiling During My Rainiest Days,” Dean recounted how she was harassed by former Fox News Chief Executive Roger Ailes. She said he made suggestive remarks to her when they met to discuss her hiring. During one meeting he asked, “How are you at phone sex?”
Ailes was fired in 2016 for having sexually harassed former anchor Gretchen Carlson, which opened the floodgates of other complaints against the company’s executives and on-air talent, including Bill O’Reilly who was ousted a year later.
Dean later praised the company’s new leader Suzanne Scott for improving the workplace culture at Fox News.
“I don’t feel fear anymore,” Dean told The Times in 2019. “It truly is because of the strong women who work at the company now.”
Dean also wrote that she was also subjected to demeaning comments from the late radio host Don Imus during her tenure as a news editor and reporter for his program in the early 2000s. She told a story of how Imus once brandished a gun in the studio.
Dean became an outspoken critic of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo after both of her husband’s parents died of COVID-19 while in an assisted living facility. Cuomo’s administration ordered that nursing home facilities take in COVID patients during the pandemic, a decision that was linked to thousands of deaths. Dean was the first high-profile figure to bring attention to the issue, testifying before a House subcommittee in 2020 and appearing at several more in the years that followed.
Dean has been off Fox News since November. The company acknowledged her departure in a statement.
“Throughout her 22-year career with FOX News Media, Janice Dean has inspired viewers with her warmth, resilience, and dedication,” the company said. “Her willingness to share her personal journeys has touched countless lives and served as a source of strength and encouragement to many. We fully support Janice’s courageous decision to step away from her role as senior meteorologist on “Fox & Friends” and are grateful for her many contributions.
A native of Toronto, Dean started her media career as a disc jockey playing progressive rock. In addition to her memoir, she wrote a series of children’s books featuring a character named Freddy the Frogcaster.
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