Strange Things That Never Made Sense About Sean Hannity's Former Marriage
This article includes mentions of sexual misconduct and assault.
If your first thought when Sean Hannity made a public statement announcing that his divorce was finalized was, "Sean Hannity was married?" — trust us when we say you're not alone. And honestly, the more we have dug into the Fox News host's former marriage, the more questions we have.
The basics are that Hannity married former journalist Jill Rhodes in 1993, and they had two children together. They got officially divorced sometime in 2019 or 2018, but had been separated for years before that. And all of this seems a little mysterious? Hannity has said before that he never comments on his personal life, which is fair enough. But normie spouses of public figures usually show up at least occasionally. Jill Rhodes is so rarely seen that at this point, she could be imaginary.
In order to positively confirm her existence, we looked a little deeper. And honestly, there are a lot of things that just aren't adding up for us. Read on, and help us make it make sense.
This interview in People
In one of the very rare times that Sean Hannity's ex-wife Jill Rhodes has ever spoken to the public, she described how she and Hannity first got together, and we're already confused. In a short profile on Hannity in People from way back in 2002, Rhodes recalled how her future ex-husband charmed her when she was a political columnist for a local newspaper. The People article reads, "Calling her up to solicit story ideas, Hannity would amuse her with his frequent voice-mail messages. Intrigued, she attended a 1992 mayoral debate he had set up."
Okay, first thing, was she amused by the content of the messages or just the number of them? And if it was the content of the messages, what was Hannity saying that "intrigued" her? We don't know if the messages were flirtatious or simply business. Couldn't constant flirtatious phone calls from a business associate be considered harassment?
And yet, Rhodes decided to check him out at the very sexy venue of a mayoral debate, where (via People), "I looked at his face and I said, 'That is the man I'm going to marry.'" It may have worked for Hannity (somehow), but fellas, please don't try this.
The fact that nobody supported the marriage
If you happened to have been paying attention to Sean Hannity's marriage to Jill Rhodes, you may have learned at some point that she was actually urged by basically everyone who loved her not to marry the commentator.
"Everyone that she worked with at her newspaper warned her not to marry me," Hannity said in an interview with Newsmax. "'You mean that guy on the radio?' Because it was Huntsville, Alabama, and I'm Sean, the New York talk-radio [guy]." This apparently even included the couple's pastor, after Hannity got into an argument with the church leader over his apparently overly-permissive views. "He said, 'You're crazy to be marrying this guy,' because I started arguing about how the church has become too liberal. And I think she left that meeting in tears," Hannity told Newsmax.
Hannity also said in the interview that of all the couple's friends who were married by this particular pastor, they were "the only ones still married." Clearly, he spoke too soon.
The way they announced the divorce
Even the way we learned that Sean Hannity was getting a divorce seemed a little confusing — particularly since the timing appeared totally random. Page Six reported in June 2020 that Hannity and his wife were already divorced, and in fact, they had been for over a year. The joint statement the ex-couple gave to the outlet read, "Sean and Jill are committed to working together for the best interests of their children. Amicable agreements were entered into over four years ago between Sean and Jill."
Page Six also noted that rumors had been going around for a while that they had divorced, but they wanted to keep the split quiet. Which seems confusing because... why? People get divorced all the time. Not even the royal family is still scandalized by divorce. An unnamed friend of the pair told Page Six that neither partner was involved with another person, and a Daily Mail source indicated that Hannity was a "workaholic," which contributed to the downfall of the marriage.
Well, best of luck to everybody, we guess.
Sean Hannity and Ainsley Earhardt had been apparently dating for years
Sean Hannity isn't exactly the kind of guy who posts couples selfies on his Instagram, so it's hard to nail down an exact timeline of when his relationship with Jill Rhodes ended and his relationship with fellow Fox News star Ainsley Earhardt began. However, at the very least, rumors that the two have been secretly dating for years begin to make more sense following Hannity's divorce announcement. Shortly after Page Six broke the news that Hannity's marriage had ended some time ago, Vanity Fair reported that four different Fox News staffers had claimed that Hannity and Earhardt had secretly been "the First Couple of Fox" (as the outlet put it) for a while.
"I knew they were involved. I saw it when we were all together," one source reportedly said. Another unnamed source told People, "He's very private, because he's very famous and he's very controversial, but it's been an open secret that they have been seeing each other." Nevertheless, open or not, neither Hannity nor Earhardt seems in any hurry to crush the "secret" part.
Jill Rhodes never commented on the sexual harassment claims about Sean Hannity
Normally, when a very famous man who is married is accused of sexual harassment, you might expect some kind of statement from that man's wife — either saying she's leaving the marriage or reiterating her support. But when Sean Hannity was accused of sexually harassing a right-wing blogger, then-wife Jill Rhodes never appeared.
Per NBC News, Debbie Schlussel, an occasional guest on Hannity's show, claimed the Fox News host had made disparaging comments about her appearance, and once tried to coerce her to return to his hotel room with him. He allegedly banned Schlussel from appearing on his Fox News series upon her refusal.
Hannity denied the allegations, saying, "This individual has a history of making provably false statements against me in an effort to slander, smear and besmirch my reputation," and he claimed the allegations were included in a "coordinated effort afoot to now silence those with conservative views." Hannity was accused of sexual misconduct again in 2020, along with Tucker Carlson, in a civil suit brought against Fox by two women, per Vulture.
If Rhodes has anything to say about all of this, we haven't heard it.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
The cheating rumors
What celebrity breakup would be complete without a cheating rumor or two? Credit where it's due, if Sean Hannity did ever have an affair, he's been able to keep it quieter than most. But not even Hannity is untouchable. Unrelated to the sexual harassment allegations, some people suspected that Hannity had been unfaithful to his wife when it was reported that he had hired Michael Cohen as his lawyer — the same lawyer who represented former president Donald Trump during the Stormy Daniels scandal.
"Cohen is in the news for covering up extramarital affairs of high-powered Republicans including Trump, in case you didn't know," tweeted journalist Scott Dworkin. The news came out when a judge ordered Cohen to reveal the names of his clients, per the Daily Beast. For his part, Hannity denied that Cohen was ever really his lawyer, and said the attorney only helped him with business matters.
Via the Daily Beast, Hannity wrote in a since-deleted tweet that his dealings with Cohen were "almost exclusively about real estate," and in a statement he said, "[I] assumed those conversations were confidential, but to be absolutely clear they never involved any matter between me and a third party."
Hmm... very curious.
Their many homes
Like many rich people, Sean Hannity owns more than one home, including one in Long Island, New York, and another in Florida. Now, without veering too far into speculation and tin foil hat territory, it kinda sorta seems like Hannity's now ex-wife Jill Rhodes lives primarily in Florida and he lives mostly in New York.
The Daily Mail reported that the separation was mostly because Hannity was constantly working, but the publication also indicated that Rhodes had hosted his 2018 birthday party at their house in Florida. Meanwhile, TV Over Mind claimed in an unconfirmed report that Rhodes had "let slip" that she planned to move to Florida permanently after her kids went off to college.
Then again, Rhodes is so good at staying out of the spotlight that it's hard to know where she is at any given time, anyway. Maybe she still lives in New York, maybe not. Maybe she's a ghost haunting the halls of Fox News headquarters. Who knows.
Sean Hannity tried to create a dating site
Though he was reportedly a happily married family man at the time, Sean Hannity was apparently very concerned about the dating scene of America's conservatives. This fervor resulted in his attempt to create his own dating site for conservative singles, specifically.
Per The Washington Post, Hannity launched "Hannidate" (seriously), in 2008, a site "where people of like conservative minds can come together to meet." Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective, Hannidate didn't take off and ended pretty quickly. We are a little curious as to why Hannity felt like a dating site was something he, personally, should do.
He actually toyed with the idea of starting another dating site for conservatives in 2015, when prompted to ponder the matter in an interview with International Business Times. He also mentioned that he loves playing matchmaker, and even pressured a young guy to propose to his girlfriend on the spot. "I'm like, 'how long you been dating?' ... 'Okay, why haven't you asked her?' And I put him under the gun. Then I say, 'why don't you do it now?'"
This seems weird, right?
Sean Hannity has said some weird things about women
Sean Hannity will talk about how he is a family man all day long, but in his estimation, this seems to include some icky things about women. In an interview with Playboy (via Intelligencer), Hannity was answering questions about "Downton Abbey," and for confusing reasons, he volunteered: "Kate Upton? I prefer Megan Fox. She's obviously very attractive. Angelina Jolie is very attractive. Scarlett Johansson is very attractive. But what do I know? I'm just a 51-year-old fat guy." Okay.
He has also undermined women who make sexual assault claims (via Salon). And per Mother Jones, Hannity once said at a CPAC event, "I can look out in the crowd, I kinda have Fox X-ray vision, and I can see some of you women, you don't even know it yet, but you're pregnant."
While he's saying all of these things about women, the woman he was married to was nowhere to be found. Come on, that's a little off-putting.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).