4t In a heartfelt revelation, Jimmy Kimmel’s wife shares the painful reality of losing connections with family members who voted for Trump — saying, “‘My husband is out there fighting this man… To me, them voting for Trump is them not voting for my husband and me and our family.’” It’s a clash not just of politics, but of deeply held values that has fractured bonds and reshaped her sense of family.
Jimmy Kimmel and his wife Molly McNearney opened up about the moment they told their children “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” had been suspended.
In September, ABC temporarily pulled Kimmel off the air following comments he made in his monologue regarding the death of Charlie Kirk. The suspension followed threats from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who called Kimmel’s remarks “truly sick,” and said, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” ABC pulled the show entirely after Nexstar and Sinclair preempted it on their affiliate channels. Kimmel has since maintained that his comments were “grossly mischaracterized.”
On the “We Can Do Hard Things” podcast, McNearney, who is the co-head writer and executive producer of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” recalled coming home to their kids the day of the suspension. She said when they got home, they had to “put on a mask” for their children Jane and Billy, asking them about school and soccer practice before sitting them down to break the news. “Meanwhile, our phones are [going] buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz the whole time in our pockets, and there’s helicopters over our house,” she said.
Kimmel told the kids, “My show has been suspended,” and, according to McNearney, “Our daughter immediately burst into tears. And she said, ‘I’ll sell my Labubus.’” McNearney said their son Billy asked if “the president had done this,” and both she and Kimmel replied, “Yes.”
“Jimmy and I both believed that night that the show was never coming back,” McNearney said. Kimmel then quipped: “So we were lying.”
Elsewhere on the podcast, McNearney and Kimmel opened up about their “challenging” relationships with Trump-supporting family members as the president’s feud with the late-night host escalated. She said she has “sympathy” for her relatives who are “deliberately being misinformed every day,” but “it hurts me so much because of the personal relationship I now have where my husband is out there fighting this man.”
“To me, them voting for Trump is them not voting for my husband and me and our family,” she added, saying “unfortunately” she has “lost relationships with people in my family because of it.”
The day Kimmel’s show was pulled from ABC, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible.”
McNearney said she is in “constant conflict” and is “angry all the time” about politics, “which isn’t healthy at all.”
“I personalize everything now. When I see these terrible stories every day, I’m immediately mad at certain aunts, uncles, cousins who put him in power. And it’s really hard,” she said. McNearney said she has tried to convince her family members to not vote for Trump, which has “definitely caused a strain.”
“I’ve definitely pulled in closer with the family that I feel more aligned with. And I hate that this has happened,” she said. “Part of me goes, ‘Don’t let politics get in the way.’ But to me, this isn’t politics. It’s truly values. And we’re not aligned anymore.”
A Variety and iHeartRadio Podcast
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