‘Fox & Friends’ host is loving more time with daughter. But it’s not all fun and games.
Usually, when South Carolina native Ainsley Earhardt appears onscreen on a weekday morning, she’s flanked by “Fox & Friends” co-hosts Steve Doocy to her right and Brian Kilmeade to her left.
But on Tuesday morning — an hour and a half after wrapping another coronavirus-era edition of the Fox News Channel morning show — Earhardt popped into view via a Zoom video call that provided a window into her non-professional world. And through that window could be seen an impressive collection of colorful projects.
“We’re making our own sea creatures. What is this, Hayden?” she said to her 4-year-old daughter, who wore a Carolina-blue bow in her hair. (For the record, Earhardt is a USC alum; she was born in Spartanburg, S.C., and her parents now live in Columbia.)
“A jellyfish,” Hayden explained.
“Then you drew a self-portrait. This is Hayden’s self-portrait. Isn’t that great?” Ainsley continued: “These were our Easter bunnies that we made out of toilet paper rolls. ... And we’ve done a lot of Legos. Amazon has been our good friend, right? We keep getting packages ’cause I’m ordering crafts and Legos.”
It was, to be sure, a window into her world that put a positive light on one of Fox News’ biggest stars still adjusting to a strange new normal. Although unbeknownst to her, at that very same instant, she was getting negative criticism for comments she’d just made on the show — in a way that’s become all too familiar to her. (More on that in a minute.)
If not for this pandemic, at this hour Hayden would have been creating these kinds of artworks at her preschool near their home in New York City and Mom would have still been busy over at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, doing post-op, attending meetings, writing emails, and preparing for the next day’s show.
But, as for virtually everyone, these are far from normal times for Earhardt.
The 43-year-old single mom, who is divorced from Hayden’s father, fled the city due to the pandemic and has set up camp in a house on Long Island. And although she still is out the door at 3 o’clock in the morning (Hayden is cared for by an au pair while her mother is at work), the 13-year veteran of Fox News is temporarily co-hosting “Fox & Friends” from a remote studio, with the only other person in the building being a camera operator who lines up the shot from a safe distance.
It is in many ways, Earhardt said, an emotionally taxing time. “There’s just a heaviness when you hear all these stories,” she said, referring not just to the onslaught of coronavirus news but also to the instances in which the pandemic has hit close to home: A friend of hers recently lost a mother-in-law to COVID-19.
She also admitted, however, that being able to do more work from home — and not always having Hayden off participating in some activity — has been a blessing.
“In the city ... we’re dashing to go to the next class, or to go to ballet,” Earhardt said. “So even though I want her to learn all of that, it is a nice break. I mean, my friends and I have said it’s like maternity leave without a crying baby. You know, as much as I loved maternity leave, there were some challenging times when the child doesn’t sleep. ...
“By the grace of God, thankfully, I’m still getting paid. I know a lot of people aren’t. And so it is nice to just have this down time with her and still be working.”
It’s not all down time, of course. It’s not all fun and games.
Like virtually every news program on television, “Fox & Friends” hasn’t eased up during the global crisis, and like many shows of its ilk, it remains polarizing — as does Earhardt.
‘I am extremely disheartened’
Take Tuesday morning’s show, for instance.
During a segment in which the co-hosts discussed President Donald Trump’s Monday night announcement that he would be temporarily suspending all immigration, Earhardt did something she often does on the show: She offered personal perspective.
“Many families here — including mine — we have au pairs and we rely on them,” she said during the broadcast. “I go to work at 3 o’clock in the morning so I need her there and I need her in my house so that she can help me with my daughter.”
“Many families rely on child care from other countries,” Earhardt continued. “These au pairs come here on work visas. They have to go back to their country to get the visas renewed and we’ve been talking in my house about how that’s gonna happen.”
Shortly thereafter, stories based solely on those remarks began popping up online and critics on social media commenced with blasting her with comments like “Oh wow, all the millions of AMERICANS out of work & Ainsley can’t find one to babysit? What a stuck up snob!” Many also tried to shame her for employing a foreigner.
The blowback hadn’t fully taken shape by the time we Zoomed together on Tuesday. When we talked on the call about the toll criticism takes on her, we talked about it in just a general sense.
“I wouldn’t be human if it didn’t (affect me),” she said, noting that this isn’t the first time her expressions of personal opinion on the show have been amplified in headlines, leading to derision. “... All I’m trying to do is be a good person. My political beliefs might be different than yours. But that’s OK, that’s what makes America thrive. And that’s one of our freedoms. You know? That’s a God-given freedom.”
She continued: “Unfortunately, these journalists that are supposed to tell the truth, they don’t. They pick out the most negative, worst thing and they spin it. ... Both sides do it. ... And I know in this profession, I can’t take it personally. But sometimes it gets to me.”
And then, a few hours after our Zoom call ended — once Earhardt had had time to see all the stories and tweets about her au pair comments — it got to her. So she did something she rarely does: She issued a response to her critics.
“I am extremely disheartened that any person or publication would criticize a single mother’s parenting decisions, especially during a time of crisis,” she wrote in a statement emailed to the Observer late Tuesday afternoon.
“I, like many parents around the world, have been homeschooling my daughter as a result of school closures and stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic. We are in the middle of a national emergency. Many are sick and many are dying. I, like so many other working parents, face challenges we have never had to face before. Schools are closed. We are also full time teachers, playmates and protectors. We are doing the best we can as working mothers and fathers to provide for our families. In addition, my parents do not live close by and I have to rely on childcare.
“I am blessed and grateful to have a legal resident living in my home who loves and cares for my daughter. She has become part of our family and is very much loved. In a time like this, I hope everyone will be kind and understanding of how one chooses to parent.”
‘I was just praying to God’
It’s been five weeks since Earhardt was last in the Fox News studio in Manhattan, though she said she did venture back into the city at one point — armed in gloves and a mask — to collect some things from her home there.
“And it was really dead and the weather was pretty dreary,” she said, “so it just added that extra element to it.”
Meanwhile, its been two months since she was in last in Columbia visiting her parents — father Wayne, 73, and mother Dale, 70. She’s trying not to worry about them too much, although her mother continues to have health problems.
In February 2018, Dale suffered a severe stroke, and spent several months in Charlotte recovering at Atrium Health’s Carolinas Rehabilitation facility. She’s diabetic, so she goes for dialysis treatments three times a week at a hospital in Columbia wearing a mask and gloves; on top of that, she also recently broke her hip and wound up needing a hip replacement. She’s currently wheelchair-bound.
“They haven’t had obviously as many cases in South Carolina as they have here (in New York),” Ainsley Earhardt said, “so I’m a little bit more worried than I think they are, but they are following the rules — the distancing — if people come to visit her. ... I’ve told her some stories about some of the cases here in New York. Not to scare her, but just to keep her aware that ‘When your friends come over, wear a mask, and keep a distance, and don’t let ’em hug you or anything like that.’”
As recently as a month and a half ago, she fully anticipated being in Charlotte this summer for the Republican National Convention with “Fox & Friends,” but now she’s not so sure.
“I mean, everyone’s down on the floor together, and they’re holding their signs and everyone’s shoulder to shoulder. I don’t know how they’ll do it.”
The only thing she said she’s really able to count on these days — besides her show, her time with Hayden, and almost-daily Facetime calls with Mom and Dad — has been her faith, which she says has gotten even stronger during the pandemic.
Just this past Sunday, in fact, she attended not one, not two, but three church services online. One led by a group of five pastors, mostly from South Carolina but also including Jack Easterby (former New England Patriots “character coach” and current executive vice president of team development for the Houston Texans); a second service out of Seacoast Church in Mount Pleasant, S.C.; and a third that Carl Lentz, senior pastor of Hillsong Church NYC, led from his home in Brooklyn.
She said she reads “a Jesus book” to Hayden every night before bed, and that she’s been intentional about sprinkling faith throughout the course of her daughter’s day.
“We’ve had great conversations — very mature conversations — about God and praying for people that aren’t doing well,” Earhardt says, “and she’ll ask questions.”
And, of course, they work almost constantly on their projects. So many projects. In fact, looking through this window into Ainsley Earhardt’s world on this particular day is almost like looking into a kindergarten class — and it occurs to me that she’d probably, in another life, make a pretty good kindergarten teacher.
So I mention that.
“Do you know what? It’s so funny you say that, ’cause I was just praying to God,” she says. “I said, ‘God, you have given me my dream job.’ ... This was my goal. I wanted to anchor a national morning show and be in New York City. And so many people in the South watch — I feel like those are my people, and I connect with them, so that’s wonderful. I would love to be at Fox for the rest of my life. ...
“But if God calls me to go somewhere else, then I will go. ... And I just told God, ‘Take my life. Do whatever you want to do with it.’ So if it’s a kindergarten classroom, I will go. If it’s starting a church, I would love to do that. We’ll see. I don’t know what the next phase is.
“Right now, I’m just breathing. ... Right now, God’s telling me just to spend that time with Hayden — and to slow down a little bit.”
This story was originally published April 22, 2020 at 2:29 PM with the headline "‘Fox & Friends’ host is loving more time with daughter. But it’s not all fun and games.."
