“‘I Can’t Keep Fighting This Alone Anymore’ — In an emotional announcement that left viewers stunned, Janice Dean reveals she is temporarily stepping back from Fox News after 20 years, admitting the toll her long battle with multiple sclerosis has taken on her body and spirit. Her heartfelt confession ignites an outpouring of support as fans rally behind her courage and vulnerability.”

Fox News host and meteorologist Janice Dean is taking an unspecified break from work to be with her family amid ongoing “health issues.”

The Fox & Friends host, 55, told viewers on Facebook she will be taking a break from work and social media “for a bit” in a statement published on Wednesday, Nov. 12. Although she is doing “ok,” Dean said she has “had some health issues that require rest and time to heal.”

“My bosses at Fox have been kind and understanding, and I feel blessed to be able to take a break to be with my family,” Dean wrote, before adding that her recent trip to Rome with her husband Sean Newman was a “good place to start healing spiritually.”

Janice Dean.Santiago Felipe/Getty

“And now I have to get back to feeling healthy and strong,” Dean continued. “I’ve always been up front and honest about my life, and I felt I owed you an explanation of my absence. But, I will be back. Grateful to you all for the kind words.”

Dean later thanked fans for their kind words in a follow-up comment. “Reading all your comments and I am so grateful for the incredible kindness and support,” she wrote. “You guys made me cry! (A good cry!) I promise to get lots of rest and take good care of myself. I appreciate all these beautiful words. Xo.”

Although Dean did not specify her current health issues, she was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis in 2005. She was diagnosed after feeling fatigued during a trip to Ottawa to introduce Sean, a New York City firefighter, to her family.

“It was the shock of a lifetime,” Dean told PEOPLE in an extensive October 2024 interview about her diagnosis. “I remember just feeling all of it was going to end: that my boyfriend was going to leave me, that I would be in a wheelchair, and I wouldn’t be able to do my job at Fox. All of my dreams kind of came crashing down.”

Dean, who also wrote about her experiences with MS in the 2019 book Mostly Sunny: How I Learned to Keep Smiling Through the Rainiest Days, married Sean in 2007. They share two sons, Matthew and Theodore.

Since her diagnosis, Dean has been a vocal member of the MS community, reaching out to others with the disease and sharing her experience with it. She told PEOPLE she often tries to respond to MS patients who reach out on social media.

“I feel connected to those people, because I know what it’s like to think your life is going to be over,” she told PEOPLE in 2024. “And I had [Fox News host Neil Cavuto, who was diagnosed with MS in 1997] to say, ‘You’re gonna be okay.’ So I try to let them know that. We’re getting better at fighting MS. And they’re going to be okay.”

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