Tragic Details About Jeanine Pirro's Life

Judge Jeanine Pirro lives a lavish life, but all the riches in the world can't protect you from scrutiny and scandal, which the former Fox News host knows all too well. Pirro has been the subject of several unflattering headlines over the years, and after President Donald Trump tapped her to be the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, some of her past scandals (and tragedies) were dredged up again. 

Pirro's road to success has had its fair share of obstacles. Her hit show, "Justice with Judge Jeanine" was unceremoniously canceled in 2022, and her other show, "You the Jury," was axed by Fox after just two episodes due to truly abysmal ratings. Pirro went on to co-host "The Five" but soon found herself in hot water for echoing the false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged. One Fox producer voiced concerns over her willingness to parrot conspiracy theories on air to justify the rigged election rhetoric and, even worse, some of Pirro's false claims subsequently became evidence in Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation suit against Fox.  

When Smartmatic sued Fox for similar reasons to Dominion, Pirro was once again at the center, but this time some of the nasty things she'd said behind her colleagues' backs in text messages came back to bite her as the company gathered evidence for its lawsuit. Needless to say, the TV personality is no stranger to scandal, and she's weathered her fair share of tragedies since stepping into the public sphere. 

Before she discussed it on air, Jeanine Pirro's fans never realized she had cancer because she hid it so well. During a 2017 episode of "Justice with Judge Jeanine," the Fox News host revealed that she had been diagnosed with cancer back in 2012. "I didn't talk about it, you didn't know about it," Pirro confirmed. "And in the end, as the chemotherapy treatments progressed, I was on air talking to you without my eyebrows, eyelashes, and wearing a wig."

Sadly, her own battle with cancer wasn't her last experience with the devastating disease — Pirro's mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and ultimately passed away in 2019. Before her death, Pirro made headlines when she was caught speeding. The controversial media personality was driving at 119 mph while she was on her way to visit her mother. 

"I had been driving for hours to visit my ailing 89-year-old mom and didn't realize how fast I was driving," Pirro reasoned in a statement at the time, per the New York Post. "I believe in the rule of law, and I will pay the consequences." Her mom, Esther Ferris, admitted that she felt responsible for the incident, telling the media, "She's too much concerned about me." 

Like many Fox News hosts, Jeanine Pirro dabbled in politics before settling for a job at the controversial cable news network. In 2005, she made a bid for the Senate, facing off against none other than Hillary Clinton for a seat. The future presidential nominee's campaign was stronger than Pirro's from the outset, and the TV personality rapidly lost popularity among members of the Republican Party as she struggled to keep up with her. In December 2005, Pirro finally called it, ending her campaign and announcing that she was throwing her hat in the ring for the position of New York attorney general instead.

Pirro's failed Senate campaign continued to haunt her, however, thanks to all the debt she accumulated. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) revealed in 2019 that Pirro still owed it a mandatory campaign finance report along with $600,000 to campaign vendors. "The failure to timely file a complete report may result in civil money penalties, an audit or legal enforcement action," they stipulated in a strongly-worded letter (via Newsweek). 

Judge Jeanine Pirro landed in a major legal scandal over her ex-husband's rumored affair, and the tea was as hot as it sounds. The media personality suspected that Al Pirro was being unfaithful around 2006, and we can't exactly blame her considering he had previously cheated and had a child with his lover. When Jeanine thought he was enjoying another clandestine relationship, the former Fox News host wanted to catch him red-handed, so she called in a favor from then-Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik to help her bug her husband's boat. Unfortunately, Kerik was under investigation himself, and their conversations were recorded without them knowing and later released to the media. 

The outspoken lawyer subsequently found herself under federal investigation, and it couldn't have come at a worse time — Jeanine was running to become New York's next AG. Alas, she was bested by Andrew Cuomo, and in the aftermath of her loss had to answer a lot of questions while facing the possibility of five years in prison if she was found guilty of illegal wiretapping. Jeanine heavily criticized the investigation at a press conference, decrying it as a "waste of taxpayer money," and proclaiming, "I said a lot of things, but what matters is what I did and didn't do — and what I did was vent" (via NBC News). 

She did, however, acknowledge having her husband followed. The Pirros' marriage ended in 2013. Aside from his philandering ways, her husband gave the White House staffer's public image a knock when he was convicted of tax fraud and conspiracy. Notably, President Donald Trump pardoned Al Pirro before his first term in office ended. 

There have been a few arguments on "The View" that went way too far, and one of them was undoubtedly a heated discussion that occurred between firebrands Whoopi Goldberg and Jeanine Pirro, in 2018. The topic? President Donald Trump, of course! Goldberg isn't exactly the divisive politician's biggest fan, while Pirro is a staunch supporter. Naturally, the two got into a spat over him, with Goldberg sharply criticizing Trump while Pirro vociferously defended him. The outspoken TV personality stirred the pot further when she discussed what happened on "Fox & Friends." Pirro claimed they ended the segment early and that Goldberg stormed off stage in a rage. She followed her, and "I said something like, 'Whoopi, you know I spent my whole life fighting for victims,' because we had talked about rapes and all that. And she said to me — she got up in my face [...] She said 'f**k you, f**k you.'" 

Following this alleged outburst, the White House staffer recalled how Goldberg chased her out of the building, complaining, "That was abuse. It was a sad moment. She was triggered and I never understood triggering." The following day, the Oscar winner shared her side of the story on "The View," clarifying that Pirro was already annoyed when she arrived because Joy Behar wasn't there and instead, Ana Navarro was sitting in on the panel. According to Goldberg, the segment finished right on time. But, as soon as the cameras stopped rolling, Pirro "called everybody at the table a name I cannot repeat on TV and said it in front of the audience." Goldberg did concede that matters escalated backstage, and that she did, in fact, call her "some few choice words that I cannot repeat" in response.

Fox News hosts are known for making incendiary comments, often without facing any repercussions for them, but Jeanine Pirro severely underestimated the blowback when she suggested that Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar's decision to wear a hijab indicated that she was an enemy of the American people. "Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?" the outspoken TV personality questioned on "Justice with Judge Jeanine" (via ABC News). These shocking comments ultimately got her suspended. 

Fox News later released a statement to inform the public that Pirro's views were entirely her own and not representative of the network's as a whole. The Trump staffer denied that she did anything wrong and, perhaps because Pirro was far from apologetic, her suspension lasted two weeks. While some fans were surprised when her show didn't air for the second week in a row, sources disclosed to CNN that the network had decided to bench Pirro for two weeks from the get-go. Notably, she also lost four advertisers in the process. Needless to say, her reputation took a bit of a hit, but it was entirely Pirro's own doing.