Tragic Details About Fox News Host Laura Ingraham

Ultra-conservative Laura Ingraham has made a name for herself as a tough, no-nonsense television host, author, and radio personality who never backs down from a fight. Others, however, might describe her as deeply controversial and extremely abrasive, with a striking inability to mince words. In short, a news anchor you’d never want to meet in real life. “No one wants to see fat people on the cover of magazines in swimsuits,” she once sneered during a heated debate with Democratic pollster Jef Pollock on MSNBC about whether or not the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue was inherently sexist (via The New York Times). And, scene!

It’s entirely possible, however, that Ingraham’s life, one that is chock-full of tragedy, actually shaped her into the Fox News rabble-rouser that she is today. “I lived through the Carter administration,” Ingraham, the daughter of a waitress and a carwash owner, recalled during an interview with the Deseret News. “I remember the gas lines. I remember what a struggle that was. And we were very middle class, so all of that affected us as a family,” she explained. Alas, being a kid from a working-class family who had to endure long lines at the gas pump is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all of the tragic details that have plagued Ingraham’s life. 

Laura Ingraham arrived at Dartmouth College in the mid-’80s as a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed up-and-coming conservative ready to take on the liberals. She wasted no time, immediately securing her role as the lead editor at The Dartmouth Review, an independent newspaper at the college. Unfortunately for Laura, the position landed her in hot water when she opted to send in an undercover reporter to a meeting of the school’s Gay Students Association. She then promptly published the details of said meeting along with the names of two of the club’s officers for all the world to read. As one can imagine, the backlash was swift. “They were trying to shame us by outing us,” Jeff Sidell told Newsweek in 2018 about the controversy. 

Laura’s actions as The Dartmouth Review’s lead editor would eventually come back to haunt her when her own brother, Curtis Ingraham, came out to her. “My first thought was to wonder whether Curtis was embarrassed — not about being gay, but about me, my politics, and my past,” she recalled about the life-changing moment in an opinion piece she penned for The Washington Post in 1997. 

Sadly, Curtis’ longtime partner, Richard Smith, was later diagnosed with AIDS — a disease he would eventually succumb to, but not before the cruel condition robbed him of his hearing, his eyesight, and his ability to walk. “Watching AIDS play its evil game of give and take has made me understand why lobbying for increased research funding should be an urgent priority not only for the gay community, but for us all,” Laura declared.

Sadly, it appears Laura Ingraham’s relationship with her brother Curtis Ingraham never fully recovered. “I think she’s a monster,” Curtis told The Daily Beast in September 2018 when asked about his famous sister and what he claims is the whole truth about Laura. “She’s very smart, she’s well-spoken, but her emotional heart is just kind of dead.” But that’s not all. He also likened her to their father — a man whom he has claimed was a “Nazi sympathizer, racist, anti-Semite, and homophobe” (via NBC News). 

Following the on-air personality’s remarks about David Hogg, a Parkland school shooting survivor, wherein she ridiculed him in a tweet for complaining about being rejected from four colleges he applied to, Curtis even went as far as to call on advertisers to pull out from “The Ingraham Angle,” the popular talk show Laura hosts on Fox News. “My sister’s repeated mean-spirited, flip and insensitive remarks makes me, her brother, question her very humanity. Your continued sponsorship is disturbing to say the least,” he fired out in a since-deleted tweet.  

While Laura’s comments were one of Fox News’ biggest scandals ever, she told NBC News that she was both “shocked and saddened” by her brother’s brutal criticism. Still, she was adamant that she missed Curtis “very much.” Perhaps there’s still time for a reconciliation? TBD, we suppose.

As for Laura Ingraham’s romantic life at Dartmouth, it also took a turn for the worse. During her time as a student there, Ingraham became romantically involved with conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza while — you guessed it — working on The Dartmouth Review. The story goes that the two got so close that D’Souza even popped the question. Sadly, the college conservatives never made good on their plans to get hitched. (How about that for an untold truth of Ingraham???)

Fortunately, Ingraham and D’Souza’s friendship has remained intact. In August 2014, Ingraham even came to D’Souza’s defense after he pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance laws. “Dinesh is simply one of the finest human beings I have ever met,” she gushed about her former flame in a letter while asking that the judge sentence him to probation as opposed to prison time (via Politico). In the end, Ingraham’s efforts seemed to work, as D’Souza was ultimately sentenced to five years of probation. Then, in 2018, he was pardoned altogether by then-president Donald J. Trump.  

What is perhaps Laura Ingraham’s greatest tragedy came in April 2005 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. In true fashion, however, the on-air personality tackled the disease head-on. “People have gone through much worse, and I know I’ll obliterate this,” she declared to the readers of her website (via the New York Post). And that she did! In December 2005, merely months after she was first diagnosed, she told C-Span host Brian Lamb that her cancer prognosis was “good.” According to Ingraham, it was her can-do spirit that helped her get through that very challenging period in her life. “I said, you know, darn it, I’m going to fight on, but I’m not going to bawl, I’m not going to say, ‘Why me?’ And I tried to just, I don’t know, put one foot in front of the other,” Ingraham revealed.

Ingraham is very careful to make the distinction that she is not a cancer “survivor” — she is a cancer “thriver.” During a candid interview with SurvivorNet in 2022, she explained that she didn’t want to be remembered as someone who had breast cancer. “I just wanted to get through it and then move on.”

As if her breast cancer diagnosis wasn’t tragic enough, shortly after undergoing surgery, Laura Ingraham also parted ways with her fiance, James V. Reyes — but not before she squeaked out a joke about him that strangely seemed to speak itself into existence. In a post on her website, she credited her friends and her family for supporting her during her time of need. As for Reyes, she joked, “If he thinks he’s going to get out of marrying me because of this little blip, he’s sadly mistaken!” (via the New York Post). Unfortunately, however, he did just that.

Ingraham, however, is adamant that there are no hard feelings between her and Reyes. “It was for the best and he’s actually a good guy and I love his family. So we’re both good,” she said during her December 2005 C-Span appearance. Alexa, play “Independent Women” by Destiny’s Child.