Jimmy Kimmel and his wife Molly McNearney told their kids it was Trump who took his show off the air

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and his wife, Molly McNearney, admitted they told their kids that President Donald Trump was responsible for Kimmel’s brief suspension from ABC. McNearney is also Kimmel’s co–head writer and executive producer on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!'

The two opened up about the awkward parenting moment during their appearance on the 'We Can Do Hard Things' podcast on Thursday. They said that when Kimmel was suddenly taken off the air in September, they had to explain the situation to their 8-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter.

“Our son asked if the president had done this,” McNearney said. “And we looked at each other, and we didn’t know quite how to answer that question.”

“I think I said ‘yes,’” Kimmel admitted.

McNearney laughed and confirmed, “We did, we actually both said ‘yes’ at the exact same time.”

ABC benched Jimmy Kimmel over on-air comment tied to Charlie Kirk case

ABC and Disney suspended Jimmy Kimmel on September 17 after he made a controversial remark on his September 15 show about the man who killed conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.

“The MAGA [is] gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said on air. The comment didn’t sit well with some powerful media players. Nexstar and Sinclair, which own a large number of ABC affiliates, pushed back hard. FCC Chair Brendan Carr said on September 17 that he believed Kimmel’s words “warranted consequences.”

Within hours, Kimmel was benched by ABC, sparking speculation from the left that the network had folded under pressure from the Trump administration. But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted the president didn’t twist any arms, saying Trump put no “pressure” on ABC to suspend him.

Five days later, on September 22, ABC reversed course. Kimmel’s suspension was lifted, and he returned to the show the next night without an apology.

Molly McNearney says Trump has fractured her family relationships

Molly McNearney opened up about how politics, and specifically Donald Trump, had fractured her family. She revealed she has “lost” relationships with relatives who supported the President.

Before the 2020 election, she even sent out a family-wide plea. “I’m begging you. Here’s the 10 reasons not to vote for this guy. Please don’t,” she said she wrote in her emails.

But the response was harsh. McNearney said 90 percent of her relatives either ignored her or sent back “truly insane responses.”

She admitted those feelings have been “really hard” to manage, adding that she wishes she could “deprogram” herself just to find some peace again.

“To me, them voting for Trump is them not voting for my husband and me and our family,” she explained. “This is not just Republican versus Democrat for me anymore, it’s family values … I’m angry all the time, which isn’t healthy at all … I wish I could deprogram myself in some way.”

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