Longtime “Fox & Friends” meteorologist Janice Dean broke down in tears as she said goodbye to Fox News after 22 years with the network. The 56-year-old explained that the demands of live morning television had become too difficult as her multiple sclerosis symptoms progressed. Dean said her doctors agreed that stepping away was necessary for her health.
Dean delivered her emotional farewell from the “Fox & Friends” couch on July 10th, surrounded by colleagues from the network where she had worked for more than two decades. Her final day included a cake, balloons, gifts, and reflections on a career that allowed viewers to watch her family grow. Dean struggled to contain her emotions as the program looked back at her years on the air.
“Thank you, God. Thanks for letting me do what I love to do,” Dean said. “It’s one of the hardest things we do as humans, but throughout life, we must go through endings to experience new beginnings.” She had joined Fox News in January 2004 and over the years had become one of the network’s most familiar morning personalities.
Dean was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2005, one year after joining the network. Multiple sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune disease that attacks the central nervous system. As Fox News reported, Dean had previously disclosed that the 2:30 a.m. wake-up time and demanding broadcast schedule were taking a growing toll on her health.
“For a long time, I was able to handle the early mornings, the many hours on my feet, and the stress of broadcasting live,” Dean explained. “Getting up at 2:30 in the morning and performing anything is hard, but especially for someone who has multiple sclerosis.” She added, “For those living with MS, the war is inside of us. We may look fine, but our immune system is attacking the brain, the spinal cord, and sometimes the optic nerve.”
Dean said her condition eventually reached the point where remaining in her position was no longer possible. “Ultimately, my symptoms progressed to the point that I can no longer continue working in my role, and my doctors agreed that stepping away was necessary for my health,” she said. During an earlier portion of the program, Dean said she believed she had made the decision soon enough to recover some of her strength.
“Living with an illness, but I think I caught it at a time where I can repair myself a little bit,” she said. “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.”
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Watch Dean’s emotional farewell here:
Dean also thanked the crew members who worked away from the cameras throughout her years at Fox. “Our behind-the-scenes crew, like when I walked in and I saw Ed and Pearl and Eddie and all of them, you don’t see them, but they feel like my family,” she said. “We don’t talk about them enough. So thank you, and thank you, the control room and the producers, and I really love you guys. This has been a really tough decision.”
Her colleagues noted that viewers had watched Dean’s sons grow from infants into young men who now stand 6-foot-3 and 6-foot-2. Dean said retirement would finally allow her to spend more time at home with her husband, Sean, and their two sons. She also thanked Sean for carrying much of the burden at home while she reported to work before sunrise each morning.
“I’m grateful for my husband Sean because he really took the lion’s share of all those mornings getting my kids up,” Dean said. “I love you. Thank you, Sean. So I have this appreciation for what he did all those years to help me have a career.” Dean closed her farewell by telling viewers, “Take good care of yourselves. Be well. God bless you all. And thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.