Who is Jesse Watters? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Age: 45 Years, 45 Year Old Males

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Emma DiGiovine (m. 2019), Noelle Watters (m. 2009–2019)

father: Stephen Watters

mother: Anne Watters

children: Ellie Watters, Sophie Watters

Born Country: United States

Journalists American Men

U.S. State: Pennsylvania

City: Philadelphia

More Facts

education: Trinity College

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Childhood & Early Life

Watters was born on July 9, 1978, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., to Anne Watters and Stephen Watters.

He was initially raised in Germantown and later in the East Falls neighborhood in Philadelphia.

He attended the ‘William Penn Charter School’ in Philadelphia. Later, the family moved to Long Island, New York, U.S.

He graduated with a BA degree in history from ‘Trinity College’ in Hartford, the capital of Connecticut, U.S., in 2001.

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Career

After graduating college, he joined ‘Fox News,’ an American cable TV news channel with its headquarters in New York City, New York.

Two years later, Jesse Watters began working with the production team of ‘The O’Reilly Factor,’ a news and talk show on ‘Fox News,’ hosted by Bill O’Reilly.

He started appearing in parts of O’Reilly’s show, presenting his man-on-the-street interviews. The audience admired the segment.

On June 11, 2014, he appeared on the ‘Fox News’ daytime news and talk show ‘Outnumbered’ for the first time. He occasionally appeared as a guest co-host on the show.

His show ‘Watters’ World,’ a monthly news program on ‘Fox News,’ debuted on November 20, 2015. The program provides his and his team’s outlook on topics such as popular culture and politics.

The show became a weekly program in January 2017, broadcasting on Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

In April 2017, he became one of the four permanent commentators of the ‘Fox News’ panel talk show ‘The Five.’ The program featured round-table discussions and focused on varied subjects such as popular culture, current affairs, and political matters.

Controversial Statements & Acts

As part of ‘The O’Reilly Factor,’ Jesse Watters, along with his cameraman, badgered journalist Amanda Terkel during her holiday in 2009. She was questioned for a negative critique of Bill O’Reilly. Seven years later, the incident returned to haunt in the form of Ryan Grim, a journalist from ‘The Huffington Post,’ asking Watters to apologize to Terkel at a journalists’ conference. The incident reportedly turned into a skirmish between the two.

On September 11, 2013, on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, he made a comment on ‘The O’Reilly Factor,’ implying that domestic terrorist acts were mostly committed by Muslims.

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In October 2016, Jesse Watters was criticized for being racist for his content in a segment on ‘Watters’ World,’ featuring the Asian–Americans of Chinatown, Lower Manhattan, New York City. He asked the Chinese–Americans in the neighborhood if they were trained in martial arts and if it was customary to bow before greeting. He also asked them if their watches were bought legitimately or stolen. The 1974 disco song ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ played in the background during the segment. It also had clips that featured him fiddling with nunchucks and getting a foot massage.

On October 5, 2016, he clarified that his man-on-the-street interviews were supposed to be taken as tongue-in-cheek humor and that he regretted that his comments had offended many. He further justified that as a political humorist, the piece on Asian–Americans was intended to be a light segment as all the portions of his show were.In January 2017, he claimed that the password to the email account of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, was “Password.” However, this was found out to be false by the fact-checking website ‘PolitiFact.’

On the sets of ‘Watters’ World,’ he met his future second wife, DiGiovine, who was an assistant producer of the program. They started an illegitimate relationship, which became the cause of the failure of his first marriage. Immediately after his first wife, Noelle, filed for divorce in March 2017, he admitted to having cheated on Noella and said that he was in a consensual relationship with DiGiovine. She was relieved from the program and assigned to the show ‘The Ingraham Angle.’Two days after becoming one of the five hosts of ‘The Five,’ he commented on Ivanka Trump, the daughter of President Donald Trump. The comment was criticized as lewd and in bad taste.On April 4, 2019, while speaking about climate change on the ‘Fox News’ talk show ‘Hannity,’ he said that climate change could be fought with suntan lotion and claimed it was not a great deal.

In late March 2020, it was reported that he had remarked that ‘KFC,’ the fast-food chain, and marijuana sellers would do brisk business in any neighborhood dominated by blacks.

Family & Personal Life

Watters is a member of the ‘Conservative Party of New York State.’

Jesse Watters and Noelle met at ‘Fox News.’ Noelle worked with the advertising and promotions department of the network and was the host of the web show ‘iMag Style.’ They married in 2009.

In 2011, they had twin daughters, Sophie and Ellie.

According to media reports in March 2018, Noelle filed for divorce from Watters in October 2017. She cited his affair with his 25-year-old colleague, Emma DiGiovine, as the reason for the divorce.

In late March 2019, it was announced that Watters and Noella had finalized their divorce.

Jesse Watters made his engagement to DiGiovine public in August 2019 and married her in December 2019.

Jesse Watters Biography