Tragic Details About The Life Of Fox News Personality Steve Doocy

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Nearing his 70s, Steve Doocy is not retiring — or being nixed from the Fox News network like some of his fellow anchors. The "Fox & Friends" co-host is, however, scaling back his duties as an anchor for the conservative network. On an April 2025 episode of the show, Doocy revealed that he would no longer be an everyday face on the signature curvy couch with his co-hosts Ainsley Earhardt, Brian Kilmeade, and Lawrence Jones. Instead, the veteran journalist will be a go-to for niche, nationwide stories, which he will cover from Florida as the "coast-to-coast host."

His reasoning for the career shift is simple: he's focusing on family, including his son, fellow Fox star Peter Doocy, and Peter's wife, Hillary Vaughn. "When my kids were growing up, I never had breakfast with them. I was always here," said Doocy. "But starting tomorrow, I'm going to have breakfast with my grandkids and my children whenever I can." Family time is warranted, considering Doocy has been hit with a slew of family tragedies over the years. From unexpectedly losing his parents to coming to terms with his wife's rare diagnosis, Doocy's genial TV personality has been built on overcoming incredible hardships.

Christmastime isn't all cheery lights and warm fires for the Doocy family. The winter holiday season reminds Steve Doocy of losing his mother, JoAnne. In an intimate excerpt from his and his wife, Kathy Doocy's, "The Happy Cookbook Series," Doocy explained how he had hung up with his mom just hours before he got the devastating call from his sister, telling him that their mother died — it was Christmas Eve 1997 (via Fox News). Though the cause of JoAnne's sudden death is unknown, Doocy has since shared anecdotes that give insight into who she was.

According to the Fox News anchor, the reason for his call that morning on Christmas Eve was so his mother could guide him through making the gravy for their holiday dinner. "I knew exactly how to make it, I was just using it as an excuse to call and show her that even though I was forty years old, a son always needs his mother," he confessed.

After her death, Doocy began looking for signs from his mother to know that she was with him. At a church service two weeks after her funeral, he spotted a gravy packet at the front altar intertwined with other pieces of a holiday arrangement. "I got goose bumps," he said, adding that beside the gravy were daisies, the kind of flower which his mom carried on her wedding day.

Steve Doocy lost his father as unexpectedly as he did his mother. In another excerpt from his cookbook, Doocy shared the sweet moments he had with his father, Jim, before he died in 2014. Doocy says his father, who died of an abdominal aortic embolism, was incredibly proud of his son's career. So much so that he once ripped off a "Fox & Friends" advertisement from a grocery store cart to keep in a scrapbook with other newspaper clippings and photos from Doocy's famed career (via Fox News). When Jim told his son he was proud of him at an award ceremony, Doocy said: "Some kids wait a lifetime for that moment, and when it arrived I was so choked up the only thing I could say was 'Thank you.'"

In memory of his father, Doocy recalled a disastrous, albeit equally fantastic, trip to Ireland that he shared with his father and uncle, Phil. According to the caption on a carousel of Instagram throwback photos from the trip, the Iowa native went to the Emerald Isles to find background on his Irish ancestors. When they got there, an employee from the national archives told them that there was no trace of their lineage and that the records could have burned in a fire. Even so, Doocy said, "We wound up having a wonderful week re-telling family stories and laughing ... Jim and Phil have since both passed, so on this St Patrick's Day I raise a glass in their memory."

With his newfound family time, Steve Doocy says he will be visiting his children and grandchildren, who live in multiple states, more often. But he's not doing it alone; he'll have his wife, Kathy, right by his side. Doocy married Kathy, a former Ford model and ESPN sportscaster, in 1986. On Valentine's Day 2025, Doocy recalled the moment he popped the question (Valentine's Day 1986). "I was kind of surprised because we had only started dating 45 days earlier," he wrote on Instagram, noting that 100 days after that, they tied the knot.

His vow of "In sickness and in health" was tragically tested when, in 2015, Kathy was diagnosed with ocular melanoma, a rare cancer that develops in the eye. In 2020, Doocy told Survivornet that a casual trip to the eye doctor for a pair of prescription sunglasses saved her life, because the doctor found a freckle on her eye — a revealing indicator of health issues. He told her to see a specialist, who confirmed her cancer diagnosis. "Anytime you hear, 'you've got cancer,' you just stop breathing," Doocy said.

Even after undergoing rigorous radiation treatment, Kathy wasn't convinced she would survive. Thus, she began contemplating what she'd leave behind for her family, her children. That's where she got the idea to write down the recipes she raised them on, which Doocy confirmed was the idea for their cookbook series. Their books are now quite a success, and fortunately, Kathy is in remission.

In a 2010 news segment on "Fox & Friends," Steve Doocy agreed with a veterinarian they were covering who said we should "treat people like dogs" in terms of healthcare. That's because Doocy is an animal lover and a former dog owner, who knows that treating a sick pet can be costly, but people like him spend the money anyway, "because our pets are members of our family." Whether or not you agree with this hot take, any pet owner likely agrees with his loving feelings towards the family dog. That's why it was especially hard for his family to say goodbye to their beloved Golden Retriever, Charlie.

At nine years old, Charlie died of cancer, according to Doocy, who mentioned it in his "Happy Cookbook Series," per Fox News. He recalled his children making the effort to come home to be by their dog's side as the vet put him down. "When my mom died, they were very little kids, but when Charlie died, they were young adults and had spent most of their lives with him," Doocy wrote. "He wasn't a dog to them; he was their brother." It is unclear when their furry friend died, but it could have been sometime after 2015 because Doocy posted a photo of him and Charlie on Instagram that year to reiterate that "The Doocys are dog people."