The real reason Jesse Watters got a divorce came to light when he tried to joke about his first marriage on Fox News. Speaking about the tension between the United States and Canada, who are involved in trade tariffs, guest Kevin O’Leary made a marriage metaphor. “You know marriages have tough patches?” said. “I’ve never heard that,” Jesse quipped, which was a sly reference to his first marriage to Noelle Watters. This made viewers bring up the scandalous timeline of Jesse’s relationship with his current wife, Emma Watters. “Waters had an affair on his first wife with his now second wife. So speaking of tough patches,” one viewer responded when a clip of the exchange was posted to X, formerly Twitter, on March 11. Some of the comments about Jesse’s infidelities were absolutely brutal. “He didn’t consider it a rough patch when he was f***ing the intern behind his wife and kids backs,” another user tweeted. “His then wife was completely devastated by his cheating with a coworker at Fox,” one viewer wrote.
O’Leary: You know marriages have tough patches?
Watters: I’ve never heard that.
O’Leary: We’re not dating the U.S. And Canada and the United States are married. A little tough patch in the marriage, it’s going to get worked out. pic.twitter.com/hXqsOBSd0e
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 12, 2025
Noelle filed for divorce from the TV personality in October 2017. Jesse wasted little time, and by the following month he told human resources at Fox that he was in a committed relationship with Emma, his future second wife, as reported by the NY Daily News at the time.
Jesse’s joke about his first marriage not only brought comments about that cheating scandal, but viewers were also bothered by how he attempted to woo Emma. “When I was trying to get Emma to date me, the first thing I did was let the air out of her tires,” Jesse said on-air in April 2022. The backlash for the “tough patches” joke was not the first time Jesse had felt the wrath of online users about his second marriage.
Jesse Watters has been roasted for age gap with his wife
After announcing their engagement in August 2019, Jesse Watters posted a photo from his and Emma Watters’ wedding to X in January 2020. “I’m Watters and this is my wife #loveyou,” he tweeted alongside a photo from their big day. Followers were quick to point out that Emma was Jesse’s mistress-turned-wife, and the Fox News anchor was absolutely roasted in the replies. The focus was not solely on Jesse’s past indiscretions but on the age difference between him and his new bride. “He’d rather have his kids live with him part time so he can live full time with his 20 something home wrecker now wife,” one follower commented. “Sorry but a man who ditches his wife for a girl loses my respect,” another added.
Even after he and Emma had been together for a while, the hostile comments towards Jesse’s did not relent. In December 2021, “The Five” host uploaded a family Christmas photo to Instagram as he posed with Emma, their baby, and his two daughters from his previous marriage. Trolls popped up in the comment section to reference the tricky tactic Jesse used when trying to date Emma originally. “Tire time,” they wrote.
To his credit, Jesse continued posting photos of his younger wife to social media in the face of trolling. He uploaded a snap of Emma wearing a tight-fitting yellow dress in Miami to Instagram in April 2022. Naturally, comments about the couple’s age disparity ensued. “She is very pretty but I’m so sad he left his aging wife .. why can’t men be happy with their woman,” a follower wrote.
