Jesse Watters facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jesse Watters
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Watters in 2021
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| Born |
Jesse Bailey Watters
July 9, 1978 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
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| Education | Trinity College (BA) |
| Occupation | Political commentator |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) |
Noelle Inguagiato
(m. 2009; div. 2018)Emma DiGiovine
(m. 2019) |
| Children | 4 |
Jesse Bailey Watters (born July 9, 1978) is an American conservative political commentator and television host on Fox News. He frequently appeared on the political talk show The O'Reilly Factor and was known for his man-on-the-street interviews, featured in his segment "Watters' World", which became its own show in 2015. In January 2017, Watters' World became weekly, and in April 2017, he became a co-host of the roundtable series The Five. In 2021, he published his first book, How I Saved the World. In January 2022, Watters became host of Jesse Watters Primetime. HarperCollins' Broadside Books published his second book, Get It Together: Troubling Tales from the Liberal Fringe, in March 2024.
Early life and education
Watters was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, son of Stephen Hapgood Watters, a teacher, and child psychologist Anne Purvis, daughter of Morton Bailey, Jr., publisher of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. His maternal great-grandfather was Morton Bailey, publisher of The Saturday Evening Post; his maternal great-great-grandfather was the politician Morton S. Bailey. Watters' paternal grandfather, Franklin Benjamin Watters, was a cardiologist at the Veterans Administration Hospital at Newington, Connecticut, and a professor at the University of Connecticut Medical Dental School. Watters is the nephew of New Hampshire state senator David H. Watters. He has some Irish ancestry on his father's side. Watters is named after his mother's great-grandfather Jesse Andrew Burnett, an associate chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court.
Watters grew up in the Germantown and then East Falls neighborhoods. He attended the William Penn Charter School through junior year, before moving with his family to Long Island, New York. In 2001, he graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, with a B.A. in history.
Career
After graduation, Watters began work as a production assistant at Fox News. In 2003, he moved to the production staff of The O'Reilly Factor, and in 2004 began to appear on air in segments of O'Reilly's show.
On June 11, 2014, Watters debuted on the Fox News show Outnumbered, later occasionally appearing as a guest co-host. On November 20, 2015, Watters debuted his own monthly Fox News program, Watters' World. While Watters is characterized as an "ambush journalist", Watters has said, "I try to make it enjoyable for the person I'm interviewing. We always come away from the interview all smiles, for the most part. And it's always fun to come back and look at the footage and say, 'Oh my gosh, what just happened?'" In January 2017, Watters' World became a weekly show, airing Saturdays at 8 p.m. ET.
In April 2017, Watters became a co-host of the roundtable series The Five.
In April 2021, HarperCollins announced the publication of Watters' new book How I Saved the World, which was published on July 6. The book debuted at number one on The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list for the week ending July 10, 2021.
After being one of several rotating fill-in hosts in the network's 7 PM time slot, it was announced on January 10, 2022 that Watters would become the permanent host of a new primetime show, titled Jesse Watters Primetime, which debuted on January 24, 2022.
Watters' World ended on January 15, 2022, while Watters continues to be a co-host of The Five.
In June 2023, Fox News announced Watters as the permanent host of the network's 8 p.m. EST hour following the firing of Tucker Carlson.
In January 2024, he presented to his viewers a theory, without evidence, that Taylor Swift and Kansas City chiefs player Travis Kelce's relationship was part of a "psyop" directed by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Personal life
Watters is registered to vote as a member of the Conservative Party of New York State. He married Noelle Inguagiato in 2009 and they had twin daughters. Noelle filed for divorce in 2018 after Watters admitted to an affair with a producer on his show, Emma DiGiovine. In March 2019, Inguagiato and Watters' divorce was finalized. Watters announced his engagement to DiGiovine in August 2019, and they married that December. They had a son together in 2021, followed by a daughter in April 2023.
See also
- New Yorkers in journalism
