Laura Ingraham has never been a stranger to controversy, so it’s probably no surprise that aspects of her personal life have been pretty messy, too. Making things all the more scandalous, one of her fiercest critics is her brother Curtis Ingraham — a massive blow as, once upon a time, she spoke about how he taught her to be more tolerant.
It’s hardly an untold truth that Ingraham has been called out for homophobia on many occasions. However, what some may not remember is that back in 1997, she used a Washington Post op-ed to share how learning Curtis was gay and meeting his partner and their friends had forced her to reconsider many of her views. In fact, Laura even admitted that she’d come to feel bad about aspects of an investigation she’d set up during her Dartmouth Review days. ICYMI, Laura had gotten one of her reporters to attend an anonymous Gay Students Association meeting so they could report back on what had been talked about. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the write-up had used incredibly inflammatory language, and Laura wrote in The Washington Post, “I now regret that at Dartmouth we didn’t consider how callous rhetoric can wound.”
Luckily for Laura, even with her shady background, Curtis had been incredibly gracious towards her, and she shared in her op-ed that they became closer after he came out. She also shared that she’d been by his late partner’s side as he faced AIDS-related illnesses, and she admitted that she’d been devastated to hear Curtis tell hospital staff he was his partner’s caretaker. “Although I understood the word had become part of the AIDS lexicon by necessity, knowing what they had been through together made it sound antiseptic, almost an insult,” she wrote. Unfortunately, it seems at some point Laura’s tolerance level reverted somewhat, and this time, Curtis wasn’t as forgiving.
Laura Ingraham’s brother has called her out in a big way
Laura Ingraham and her brother may have been close after he came out to her, but it’s safe to say that’s changed. In fact, back in 2018, Curtis Ingraham launched on a months-long social media crusade against her.
The first of Curtis’ very public condemnations of his sister came in February 2018. In response to a video rant against Laura posted to The Breakdown’s Facebook page, Curtis made it clear they were not on good terms. “Our father was a Nazi sympathizer, racist, anti-Semite and homophobe. Like father like daughter? I can only apologize for behavior that is beyond the pale,” he wrote in the comments section. Yikes.
A few months later, Curtis doubled down on his claims that their dad had fostered a very intolerant environment in their home growing up, and he painted a tragic picture of the Ingraham household. In an interview with “Vice News,” he recounted, “We were raised in a family that was very abusive — alcoholic father, a Nazi sympathizer. I remember finding a copy of ‘Mein Kampf’ on the bookshelf, and I found a Nazi armband, a Nazi helmet in the cellar. There was a Confederate flag. That’s the familial soil.” In response to that, a spokesperson for Fox News confirmed to “Vice” that Curtis was estranged from Laura and the rest of their family. Granted, the statement did have some shady wording in it, too. “The family hasn’t seen Curtis in years and is extremely worried about him — they find it very sad to see him exploited by media outlets for their own political ends,” it read.
Curtis also called Laura a hypocrite over her immigration stance
Laura Ingraham has never made a secret of the fact that she adopted her kids. In fact, she’s spoken very openly about adopting internationally, and she even gave an interview to The Wrap about the importance of keeping politics out of the process. An important sentiment, no doubt. However, let’s just say the richest female Fox anchor’s comments didn’t exactly give her brother the warm and fuzzies.
Speaking to “Vice News,” Curtis Ingraham lashed out at his sister’s stance on immigration, calling it hypocritical. In response to Laura’s now-infamous criticism of immigration (ICYMI, she lamented that immigrants were being “foisted upon the American people”), Curtis clapped back, “She said that letting immigrants in might change or dilute our national experience, our American way of life. And I thought, ‘Hypocrite. You have three adopted children. One from Guatemala, two from Russia. How can you make a statement like that and sit there and know that you have kids that are themselves from other countries?'”
It wouldn’t be the last time Curtis used Laura’s kids to make a point. In 2019, he called her out for her attacks on Greta Thunberg. Taking to X (then known as Twitter), he ranted, “Clearly my sister’s paycheck is more important than the world her three adopted kids will inherit.” It does bear mentioning that in this particular instance, Curtis himself was criticized, too — and not just by those who sided with Laura’s perspective. “So petty to call her kids ‘adopted.’ If she adopted them, they are her kids. This tells me all I need to know about you,” wrote one frustrated X user. Laura did not respond.
Curtis believes Laura’s on-air persona is the same off-air
One particularly sad detail about the drama between Laura Ingraham and Curtis Ingraham is that back in the ’90s, the former had spoken about her political beliefs and personal feelings not always lining up neatly. Specifically, in her op-ed for The Washington Post, she referenced a tense exchange she had with then-congressman Barney Frank, noting that he’d been furious to learn of her involvement in the Gay Students Association scandal. She added that Frank had been unmoved by her retort that she’d been supportive of her brother and his partner. “The disconnect between my public persona (the caricature of conservatives as unwaveringly intolerant toward gays) and my personal life (my relationship with my brother) hit me like a right hook,” she wrote.
Laura went on to write about how she was trying to reconcile her public and personal lives and concluded that she’d stopped being as dismissive of gay marriage. She also hinted at Curtis being able to see beyond her politics, writing, “I was glad to know that, despite my in-your-face political/journalistic agenda during college, he trusted me enough to confide in me.”
What a difference a few years make. In his 2018 “Vice” interview, Curtis clarified that he no longer believed there was any difference between Laura’s public and private personas. “Someone asked me, ‘Is that really your sister? Is she just playing a media personality?’ and I think it is who she has become,” he nodded sadly. Of course, he hasn’t confirmed that IRL, since they’re estranged, and he told the outlet he wasn’t open to a conversation just yet. No surprise, there — he’d previously told The Daily Beast, “She does not listen to understand — she listens to respond. And her response is always an attack.”
Laura hasn’t retaliated against her brother
In the wake of everything her brother has said (and continues to say) about her, it’s probably no surprise that Laura Ingraham has spoken out — and we’re not just talking about her aforementioned statement to “Vice” via Fox.
Speaking to The Daily Beast, she shared similar sentiments, though this time without a shady “We’re worried about him” line. “My siblings and I are shocked and saddened to learn of these false and hurtful online postings. Although we’ve been estranged from him for many years, we love our brother and miss him very much,” she told the outlet. Suffice it to say, the message wasn’t exactly taken to heart. In addition to his comments during his “Vice” interview, which aired after Laura gave a statement to The Daily Beast, Curtis Ingraham has continued to trash his celebrity sibling on social media. He’s not just weighing in on her most controversial musings, either. Curtis regularly posts direct responses to Laura’s X posts, tagging her as he does so.
We guess time will tell if these two ever manage to sit down and work things out. However, at least at the time of this writing, we’re not banking on the siblings seeing eye to eye anytime soon.
Not all of Laura’s former relationships have soured
Given everything Laura Ingraham’s brother has said about her, it would make sense to think that many of her former relationships (familial or otherwise) ended on a very acrimonious note. However, it doesn’t seem as though that’s the case.
Though Laura has never walked down the aisle, she has been in two serious relationships — and at least one led to an engagement. That particular relationship, with James V. Reyes, ended while she was receiving cancer treatment. However, speaking to C-SPAN in 2005, she had nothing but good things to say about her ex. “It was for the best, and he’s actually a good guy and I love his family. So we’re both good,” she shared. Likewise, she’s also spoken highly of ex-boyfriend Dinesh D’Souza, going as far as vouching for his character to a judge while he was facing legal woes. Of course, it is worth noting that at least in D’Souza’s case, their politics closely aligned. As many know, D’Souza is the filmmaker behind several right-wing documentaries, as well as a political commentator in his own right (and, notably, was involved in the same Gay Students Association scandal as Ingraham — both of them were editors at Dartmouth Review at the time).
With neither Laura nor Curtis sharing when exactly their sibling feud began, we can’t speculate over whether the former’s continued friendship with D’Souza (who isn’t especially remorseful over the Gay Students Association scandal) played any part in it. However, it’s fairly safe to say that Curtis doesn’t believe his sister has changed all that much from her days at Dartmouth, after all.
