0:00

M and

0:03

broadcasting. I've always, unfortunately,

0:05

every job that I've gone through, I've had to deal with

0:08

some sort of awkward moments

0:10

or weird comments, or a

0:12

power dynamic between some a man

0:15

that you know is higher up or a boss. So

0:17

I've always been able to walk that

0:19

line of laughing it off or removing

0:22

me from an awkward situation, or telling

0:24

him I have a boyfriend, reminding him I have a

0:26

boyfriend. Hi,

0:46

I'm Dr Oz and this is the

0:48

Doctor Oz Podcast. Her

0:52

story is one of resilience. Fox and Friends

0:54

anchor and meteorologist Jane's Dean has always

0:56

found the silver lining in every cloud, no

0:58

matter what challenge she face. Today,

1:01

as he revealed the truth about the stormy days of

1:03

her past and her brand new book, Mostly Sonny,

1:05

How I learned to keep smiling through the radius days.

1:08

I love all the meteorological allegories

1:10

here. Why speak at that? What made you want to come

1:12

forward? These are

1:15

private issues. A lot of folks don't tell even

1:17

family about them. Well,

1:19

some of these stories my husband hadn't

1:22

even really gone into detail with, or

1:24

I haven't hadn't told him about a lot of these,

1:26

you know, stories that maybe

1:28

he knew sort of the surface of UH.

1:31

An example being in Houston when I had the home

1:33

invasion. He knew that that had happened to

1:35

me, but he didn't know the detail. And

1:37

I remember giving him that chapter

1:40

and he said, okay, let me read

1:42

it tonight by myself. And

1:45

I went to bed, and the next morning

1:47

I woke up and I could tell you

1:50

know, it was different because he didn't

1:53

know the detail. He didn't know how

1:56

it affected me profoundly. And

1:59

um, I also and he felt like he

2:01

wished he was there to protect me. Actually,

2:03

that's the let's start there. We're gonna

2:05

go back. That hasn't questions from even earlier in your

2:08

life. But tell me one about the home invasion in

2:10

Houston, what happened and the miracle

2:13

that you're still here. Yeah, well I

2:15

still. I mean writing it, Uh,

2:18

it brings you back because I think I

2:20

kind of closed the door on it for a little

2:22

bit. I always, I have

2:25

to say, I think I think about it every

2:27

day. Um, whether it's when I opened

2:29

the door to go outside, or I make sure that I've double

2:31

locked the doors, or I put the security system on.

2:34

I think about it every day. And even though I escaped

2:37

relatively unscathed. Uh,

2:40

it's still left emotional scars on me. So

2:42

I was living in Houston, uh,

2:44

living on my own, uh, and I was in a

2:47

first floor apartment in what they

2:49

call a luxury apartment building, and

2:51

so I never felt unsafe. I

2:53

grew up in Canada and we didn't

2:56

never have issues of home invasions in

2:58

Canada. I mean we I had never seen

3:00

a gun in my life. I you

3:02

know the old story about leaving your

3:04

doors unlocked. I mean we kind of lived

3:06

that. So living in a big American

3:08

city like Houston, I didn't even

3:11

really think that I would ever

3:13

find myself um facing

3:16

uh you know, a robber. But

3:18

one night, Uh, I had left the window

3:20

open ever so slightly because it

3:23

was a cool night in Houston, which is so rare,

3:25

and you know, you're always in a state of air conditioning. So

3:27

I thought I'll leave the window open and get some fresh

3:29

air forgot to close it. I

3:32

just remember I was being

3:34

poked in my shoulder and I woke up

3:36

and I had, um this man

3:39

uh sitting next to me on my bed, Um,

3:42

you know, six inches away from my face

3:45

with a knife and uh

3:48

he My first reaction

3:50

was to say hi, to him. I don't know where

3:52

that comes from. It was just like,

3:55

Hi, can I help you? I didn't panic.

3:58

I mean I I my heart was racing, obviously,

4:00

and I knew what was going on, but

4:03

I was very steady and calm, and

4:05

I just, uh, I said, can I help you?

4:07

Can I what you need? Um?

4:10

And he, you know, basically motioned

4:13

for me to start taking off my clothes. So I

4:17

um immediately said

4:19

to him, I have money, I have jewelry,

4:21

I have a new car. I'll give

4:23

you all of it, you know, um. And

4:25

he just sort of said, no, I want you to take

4:28

your clothes off. And um.

4:30

So I sleep with a lot of layers, uh,

4:33

I you know, sleep with sweatpants

4:36

and a T shirt and you know, I

4:39

mean I'm always cold, but you know what, doctraws.

4:42

I feel like that might have also saved my

4:44

life because I had time

4:46

to keep taking layers off. Um.

4:49

And meanwhile, I keep telling him

4:51

I have money, I have jewelry I have I mean,

4:53

I made it sound like I had so much money

4:55

and jewelry when I didn't. Um.

4:58

And so I

5:00

proceeded to take off clothing

5:03

um. And I was down to my underwear and

5:06

I just thought to myself, Okay, well this is probably gonna

5:08

be bad, so I'm just gonna, you know, pretend

5:10

that I'm my my mind is discarnated

5:13

connected from my body. So whatever he does,

5:15

I'm just gonna like just lay here and

5:17

not react. Um.

5:19

And he just then

5:22

decided, okay, I'm gonna take her jewelry.

5:25

Okay, show me where your jewelry is. Uh.

5:27

And so I got out of the bed, and meanwhile, I'm thinking in my

5:29

mind, Okay, what do I do next? What do I do next? Do I?

5:32

I gave him all my jewelry, and then

5:34

I said, okay, let's go get the money.

5:37

And we walked into the living room and I noticed

5:39

that my purse was already

5:41

he had already gone through my purse. Uh.

5:44

So he had taken the money. And I remember

5:46

thinking to myself, Okay, what do I do now? And

5:49

there was a really loud It was either

5:51

like a car alarm or it sounded

5:53

like a gunshot. I'm not sure what it was, but it both

5:55

startled us to the point of he

5:58

ran out of the apartment. And that's

6:00

when I broke down and started screaming. Um.

6:03

And after going

6:05

through a therapist, uh, she had

6:07

said to me, the fact that you remained very

6:10

calm also might have helped

6:12

you. Because I think a lot of these

6:14

guys when you get upset and you start screaming,

6:16

and that's what they that that excites

6:18

them. So the fact that I was very

6:21

calm and I just spoke to him very matter of factly,

6:23

um, might have also saved me. But

6:27

it still happened. It was still an invasion of

6:29

my space and my home, and

6:32

it's it's to this day, it's still with me. Where

6:34

does it commist come from? I mean, you speak

6:37

mostly sunny about even in high school,

6:39

You're there are times when it wasn't so

6:41

sunny outside for you. Yeah, I'm

6:43

not sure. Um.

6:46

I'm in a business of like connecting

6:48

with people and talking to people,

6:51

and I've always wanted to be a broadcaster

6:53

ever since I was five years old. I mean I start

6:55

the book about being outside and interviewing

6:58

some of my friends, like like I'm, you

7:00

know, a reporter. Um. So I've always

7:03

had a good way to connect with

7:05

people, and I feel that that maybe helped

7:07

me somehow. Like even though this stranger

7:09

was in my bedroom, probably wanting to do terrible

7:12

things, I was just very

7:14

calm and wanted to start a conversation

7:16

with him. I don't know where that comes from. I

7:18

don't know. Well, you speak in the book

7:20

about episodes of bullying,

7:24

and that's often, you know, with

7:26

bullying, you don't know how to act, you don't be commerce,

7:28

so they don't think it's fun anymore because they're coming after

7:30

the prey. But then again, you want to defend yourself,

7:32

and being calm makes it seem like your dociles sometimes,

7:35

right. I tried to be friends with them

7:37

all the time, you know. I It's

7:39

funny because I remember one particular

7:42

girl that used to bully me, and all

7:44

I wanted to do is just be friends with her. I couldn't

7:46

understand why she didn't like me for

7:48

some reason. And at the end of

7:51

eighth grade, so the bullying has probably started

7:53

earlier, early seventh grade. At

7:55

the end of eighth grade, she finally came

7:57

up to me one day and said, do you want to come over to my

8:00

house tonight and we can you know, uh,

8:02

do homework or something. And I thought, oh my gosh,

8:04

I I finally got through to her, you

8:06

know, I finally You

8:09

know. There are other episodes where

8:11

I've had people that have bullied in my life that I,

8:13

you know, didn't become friends with. But I

8:15

think I've always just maybe I've been a people

8:17

pleaser or somebody that maybe

8:20

thought I could get through to even

8:22

the mean kids. Have

8:24

any of the people that you've mentioned in the book

8:27

come back approach you connected

8:29

with you again? And the bullies from school, I'm

8:31

always curious about that because there's

8:33

always those conflicts in school that they're

8:36

often perceived very in very complex

8:38

way. It's not the way I'm friends

8:40

with that girl on Facebook are. Yeah, I've

8:43

I've always wanted to reach out and say

8:46

to her, what was it about me that

8:48

you wanted to tease? Was it because I didn't

8:50

look like you? You know, I was always heavy. I was a

8:52

heavy kid, and but I never

8:54

did that. But she's, you know, we're friends

8:56

on Facebook, and I just I just want to

8:59

just not even think about

9:01

it. Since you bring up food, how have you

9:03

used food differently in different points of your

9:05

life? Well, growing

9:07

up, I

9:10

ate a lot. I I think I saw

9:12

the relationship my parents were having. It

9:14

wasn't a happy one. I didn't, you know, I never really

9:16

saw my dad very much. I knew

9:19

my mom wasn't very happy at

9:21

home. Maybe I wasn't getting

9:23

the attention that I thought I deserved.

9:26

You know, I think that, you know, part of the

9:28

reason I wanted to be a performer was

9:30

because I never could really get their attention

9:32

as much as I wanted to. And I would

9:34

see them watching CNN all the time,

9:37

and I think I was like, well, maybe if I was on television,

9:40

maybe they would pay attention to me. So

9:42

I always think I got into this business

9:44

too to sort of like say

9:47

hi, Mom and dad, here I am

9:49

um. But I used to soothe myself with food.

9:52

Uh. My mom, you know, took me

9:54

to a doctor at an early age and

9:56

said, you know, my my daughter has an eating

9:58

problem, like she's she doesn't want to go to

10:00

school, people tease her. And

10:02

so I was on diets and I was probably

10:05

eight or nine ten, and

10:08

you know, I realized that food wasn't

10:10

something I should be eating because I would

10:12

gain weight. But then when she would leave the

10:14

house, I would go and I would find all the cookies

10:16

and sweets that she would hide that my brother could

10:18

eat, and I would eat them. How did you break

10:20

How did you break the psycho? Because I certainly don't

10:22

look like you have. I I

10:28

think I will always have I

10:31

love hate relationship with food. Um.

10:33

But now that I have children, you

10:35

know, who are eight and ten, and I see my you

10:37

know, my oldest sometimes you know,

10:40

wanting to eat more than he probably should. I see

10:42

that in him, but instead of pointing

10:44

him, pointed it out to him.

10:46

I don't do what my

10:48

mom was, and that was constantly be at

10:50

him or me. You know, like, you can't eat that,

10:52

you shouldn't be eating that. The doctor said you can't eat

10:54

that. Um, So I go

10:57

up and down. But I also talked about it in the book. I'm in

10:59

this perfect us and where women

11:01

are thin, uh, and they are you

11:03

know, that's what people look like on television.

11:06

And now I kind of pride myself on being

11:08

a little bit different. So I'm

11:10

an eight to ten, which size eight

11:12

ten uh, And I'm actually very proud

11:15

of the fact that I'm you know, normal sized.

11:18

There's lots more will be come back. Can

11:30

I pursue this issue of a

11:33

bullying in your life because you

11:36

you're you're modest about your success, so I'll you brag

11:38

on you, but you work with some of the most iconic people

11:40

in the business. And two of them particularly

11:43

have have mixed reputations. I've

11:45

gotten to meet both of them, so I realized on different

11:47

sides to their stories. But

11:49

it's your books, your story, So I'd like

11:51

to ask you about first don Imus Um,

11:54

a guy who's dominant on radio,

11:57

has done many filanthropic things. Um.

12:00

But as you know, a mixed reputation when you take

12:02

when you go out and take chances saying things that you

12:04

believe to be true. Not everyone's gonna like it, but

12:07

he was. He can be tough

12:09

on folks, and I

12:11

love no more about your relationship with him,

12:13

Well, we don't have a relationship. He

12:17

did come out when the book came

12:19

out and there were articles written about

12:21

how he treated me abusively.

12:25

Um. He did issue a statement and

12:27

said something to the effect of I always

12:29

liked Jannisteine and the

12:32

story she tells certainly make

12:34

for a good book. But

12:36

none of that happened. I

12:39

have people I've worked with other women

12:41

that have worked with him, that have all that have reached

12:43

out to me and said thank you so much for finally

12:46

saying something. He was obviously

12:48

the character that you saw in the air. UM.

12:52

You know, he he would put people in their

12:54

place, or they would joke with

12:56

them or sometimes be yeah,

12:59

you know mean on air,

13:01

and he certainly was that way with me, but

13:04

off air he was also not a nice

13:06

person. Um. When

13:08

I first got there, I was told basically,

13:10

you know, don't look at him when he comes in, don't address

13:12

him until he addresses you. Um,

13:15

if you do something that he doesn't

13:17

like, you will hear about it. He

13:20

you know, cursed me out, called me fat

13:22

and stupid, and um. There

13:24

would be the very rare moment

13:27

when he was there where he would say, oh, you're

13:29

doing a good job, and I would think, oh my gosh,

13:31

that little moment where yes,

13:34

he thinks I'm doing a good job. I'm gonna

13:36

keep doing this and maybe things will change,

13:38

and then he would go back to the the mean

13:40

abuse of behavior. And I

13:43

actually have people that still

13:45

remember me from imus uh

13:48

the one year that I worked for him. It made

13:50

a big impact on people who listened, and

13:52

they would say to me, I'm so glad that you got out,

13:55

because I could even hear it on the air

13:57

that he would, you know, he would treat you badly.

13:59

What's bullets story? He would

14:01

name bullets after people. Was that real? He

14:04

carried a gun around with him when we

14:06

worked at w F A. N. And

14:09

we knew it was loaded because he would, on a fairly

14:11

regular basis take the bullets out

14:13

of the gun and name them after all of us.

14:15

He thought it was funny, but we were

14:17

all sort of like, I mean, we would joke about

14:19

it in the hallways, but I think, you know, it

14:22

was a way of survival, like can

14:24

you believe what we're going through? And people knew

14:27

that management knew, but he was making

14:29

too much money for them to to be

14:31

able to threaten. Did us a

14:33

gun? Did ever pointed anybody? Yeah, he

14:35

would. There was a traffic reporter there,

14:38

uh, And we would all be out in the newsroom

14:40

and he would come out of the studio and

14:43

again he would kind of snicker under

14:45

his breath that it was kind of a joke, but he would

14:47

he point the gun at the back of her head

14:49

because she was not facing him, so he'd

14:51

come back and he would point it right at her head and

14:54

we would be standing there, and he would also threaten

14:56

people. I write about there

14:58

was an intern one day and he was

15:01

he was star struck by Imus,

15:03

and we all told him and warned him like don't

15:05

look at him, don't talk to him, but you know

15:07

he could. He his idol was

15:09

walking into the room, and I remember

15:12

I must just say, you know, knew that he was

15:14

watching him and would say, you know,

15:17

ah, don't you know stop

15:19

looking at me, or I'm gonna you know, I'm gonna shoot

15:21

that beanie off your head so fast. And he

15:23

you know, he was Jewish, so and

15:26

you know, we were all sitting there shell

15:28

shocked a little bit. I thought to myself, I

15:30

hope that this young man goes and tells

15:32

his dad that, you know, his idol just

15:35

basically said he was gonna shoot

15:37

his head off if he kept looking at him. What would

15:39

what would bother him? And how did it impact you? Because

15:41

this this is more your story when

15:43

when you can't make sense about what someone's doing.

15:46

And I have to assume he thought it was funny

15:48

or at least gallows humor. That

15:51

I don't understand what WHI else you'd get mad at

15:53

a fan looking at you? I

15:55

don't know. I

15:58

I think he treated women in differently

16:00

as well. He he had a meaner streak

16:03

with women, and I always thought to myself, maybe I reminded

16:05

him of someone Maybe his mom

16:07

or an ex wife of a lady

16:10

who I don't know, jilt at him or something.

16:12

Maybe that's why he was meaner to me. Um,

16:15

But he did it to all of the other guys too.

16:17

That the guys that I used to work with.

16:19

I've talked to them since and um,

16:22

after the book came out, and they have

16:24

said to me, you know, good for

16:26

you. UM, just know that we went through

16:28

it too, you know. But he still

16:30

wields some power because I was supposed to go

16:32

on a radio show with one or two of

16:34

the people that I worked with, and uh,

16:36

it was canceled. And I heard

16:38

it was because Mr Imus said, don't

16:40

have her on the program. Well, I

16:43

can't judge it wasn't there. It's just, you know, when you

16:45

hear these things, I just try to make sense of it. Of course,

16:48

of course, I still you know, I

16:50

was warned before I took the job. But you have to understand,

16:52

I'm a kid from Canada with this opportunity

16:55

to work in New York City with one of the biggest brodects.

16:59

But I knew very quickly that it was not going to

17:01

be a great job for me, and

17:03

so uh, you know, I

17:05

I tried my best to get through it. I

17:08

kept thinking that maybe he

17:10

would like me, like the bullies

17:12

that I that I would try to maybe

17:14

like the thing here. Maybe maybe I

17:17

mean, that's how he treats people he likes.

17:19

If he's walking around people he works

17:22

with, probably people he likes. I don't

17:24

have to speak for himself. I'm just saying from your perspective, I can

17:26

understand why it's confusing or work. I do remember

17:28

the day that I said that I was going over to Fox

17:30

News, and my program

17:32

director went in to tell him,

17:35

and he went on the air and actually said, oh,

17:37

I heard that pig Jannistine is going over to work

17:39

for Fox. They can have her. And someone told

17:41

me afterwards that he was really mad that

17:43

I didn't come talk to him first before I went

17:45

over to Fox. And I thought to myself,

17:48

Wow, So if I had gone into him and said

17:50

I'm thinking about going somewhere else where they actually

17:53

might treat me all right, would he have been

17:55

nicer? I don't know. I

17:57

don't know. You go to Fox and roder Ails

17:59

is there, Roger rest

18:02

of Souls. He's past, but he and

18:04

a complex relationship I'll say with some people

18:07

there too. How would that work for you? Well,

18:10

you know, nothing is black and white,

18:12

you know, I think people like to paint these

18:14

people as you know, either terrible

18:16

evil people. You know, right

18:19

exactly. And with Roger, I

18:22

I still have a soft spot for him, even

18:24

though, um, you know, early on

18:26

in my career he did say inappropriate

18:29

things made me feel very uncomfortable

18:31

and and was a pattern

18:33

of behavior with some of the women. To

18:35

what what kind of things would he say that was

18:38

overlooked forgiven? Well,

18:40

listen, I mean I in broadcasting,

18:44

I've always, unfortunately every job

18:46

that I've gone through, I've had to deal with some

18:48

sort of awkward moments or

18:50

weird comments, or a power

18:53

dynamic between some a man that

18:55

you know is higher up or a boss than

18:58

uh you know, somebody a worker like me.

19:00

So I've always been able to walk

19:03

that line of laughing it off or

19:05

removing me from an awkward situation, or

19:07

telling him I have a boyfriend, reminding him

19:10

I have a boyfriend. Um. So

19:12

when Roger would make

19:14

advances, my first

19:16

job interview with him was in his office, nothing

19:19

inappropriate happened. I actually thought

19:21

he was so very charismatic and

19:23

and funny, and um,

19:25

I just thought he was great. The

19:28

second uh job interview

19:30

was in a hotel lobby bar that was set

19:32

up by one of his secretaries, and it

19:35

was almost like a date and he came in. I

19:37

think it was probably three o'clock. I told my agent

19:39

that this meeting was happening, and

19:41

she just said, oh, he probably just wants to go

19:43

off campus, you know, um. And

19:46

we sat down. He asked me to order a drink,

19:49

and I remember it was like, you know, three or four

19:51

o'clock in the afternoon, and

19:53

I ordered a drink and he ordered the same, and

19:56

then we made small talk. He said, I've

19:58

been thinking a lot about you, and then he reached a over

20:00

and grabbed my hand and said, have you

20:02

been thinking about me? And I was like,

20:05

ah, I've been thinking that

20:07

I maybe want a job. And

20:10

you know, he you know, do you have a boyfriend?

20:13

And you look so pretty and um,

20:15

and I just thought, oh my gosh, this is the weirdest interview

20:18

I've ever been on the job at room. But I

20:20

thought it was weird, but I wasn't alarmed

20:23

by it. It was just maybe he wants

20:25

to have an affair and I probably am not going to get this

20:27

job. But I'm not attracted to him, so and

20:29

then he said, listen, I'm still thinking about

20:31

you for a role on Fox. Let me think

20:33

about it a little bit more. And he

20:36

said and he said, I better go. You know, we

20:38

don't want people seeing us together or something

20:40

like that. So then he left and I was

20:42

like, Okay, that was strange. I probably am

20:44

not going to get a job there. Uh,

20:46

And then I would say probably a few days

20:49

later, I get a phone call in my apartment.

20:51

His assistant says, Janistine, I've got rod Riel's

20:53

on the phone. Would you take the call. I said yes,

20:56

And he gets on the phone and he says,

20:59

how are you? And I said I'm great. And

21:01

he said a few things. I've been thinking about you

21:04

and I said, oh great. He said, I've been thinking about you over

21:06

at Fox. He said, but you know, I've

21:08

been thinking a lot about whether. I mean, how

21:10

are you with phone sex? I

21:12

just thought, I thought, oh

21:15

well, my comedic instinct kicked

21:17

in and I said, I am terrible. I'm

21:21

terrible. As a matter of fact. He

21:23

said, well, you have a boyfriend, you know, he

21:26

you must do that with him? And what if I was

21:28

your boyfriend? I said, no, actually, I've never

21:30

done this type of thing before. Uh.

21:32

And thankfully then he said, well, I want

21:34

to hire you a Fox and

21:37

UM, and so I I

21:39

just I always thought maybe he was joking

21:41

around, or he wanted maybe

21:44

wanted to have an affair and was just waiting for me to

21:46

say that I would or

21:48

not. UM, and then he hired

21:50

me at Fox. And to be honest with you, after

21:52

that, UM, there were

21:55

weird comments when I would go into his office.

21:57

I certainly was privy to the spin

22:00

where he would tell us to spin around, let

22:02

me take a look at you. But honestly I

22:04

didn't think anything of it. Were in a visual business.

22:07

He wanted to, you know, see

22:09

how I looked on television. UM.

22:11

And then it kind of stopped from there. You

22:13

know. He would always ask me if I had a boyfriend, and

22:16

I always did have a boyfriend. So I feel

22:18

like, did you ever make passes a woman who who

22:20

did have boyfriends who are married? Yeah,

22:24

Hagan Kelly, I mean we we talked

22:27

a lot when Megan was married. Was

22:30

she married when he was making pass at her? I

22:32

know, you know what, No, she was divorced. So

22:35

I feel that he want

22:38

he would ask these questions

22:40

and see how you responded. And I think, you know,

22:42

some women said yes,

22:45

you know, and um,

22:47

but I never you

22:50

know, it didn't go on. He didn't

22:52

keep doing it. And I enjoyed my

22:55

job there. I really enjoyed it. And people say,

22:57

why did you go over there if he was like that? And

22:59

my sponsors I've had to deal

23:01

with this kind of thing my entire career

23:04

and the job previous to that, there

23:06

was a man with a gun that would be name

23:08

bullets after me so

23:11

and I liked New York and I had just met

23:13

my boyfriend Sean, who I went to Mary

23:16

did the women who worked at Fox

23:18

have a unspoken agreement of how to

23:20

deal with all this? We all sort

23:22

of especially with Megan, you know, we

23:24

we would go out to lunch and we would

23:27

just sort of, you know, gently

23:30

like, hey, were you ever in a meeting with Roger

23:32

where he would say something like this. It was all sort

23:34

of like, oh, that's Roger being Roger, But

23:36

we never knew the extent to

23:39

what we now know. Um, it was

23:41

always just he was he would test the

23:43

waters and see how that was never talked

23:45

aggression, for example, And she wanted

23:47

to know about my story. She I did

23:50

tell her about my experience with him

23:52

a couple of times, but she never told

23:54

me about her experience. So we were you surprised

23:57

when she came out. Yes, I

23:59

was. Um. She

24:01

would always you know, I wouldn't say we were

24:03

good friends, but we were friendly enough that we would

24:05

talk that, you know, when she would go into his office,

24:08

she would always say, oh, of course he's Roger being

24:10

Roger. But I I was shocked

24:12

when I found out that, you know, that

24:16

she that he was, you

24:18

know, being very inappropriate with her and

24:21

to the point of, you know, she launched

24:23

a lawsuit. And I think that's

24:25

when all of us realized, the ones

24:28

that had these kinds of stories, that it

24:31

was important for us to go in to the lawyers

24:33

to tell our stories. Even though we never thought

24:35

he was going to be fired. We we thought

24:38

Gretchen would lose that case. We

24:40

never thought Roger was going to leave so

24:43

powerful. He was very powerful, and we didn't

24:45

really believe to the extent

24:48

that maybe we now know how pervasive

24:51

it was, and you know, we still

24:53

don't really know. I can only tell my story,

24:55

you know, I can only tell you what I experienced

24:58

with him. Um, I never felt

25:00

like he was going to touch me or do

25:02

anything. Do you feel

25:05

reaffirmed that the

25:07

organization Roger

25:10

the way they did. I feel

25:12

like they acted very quickly. Um,

25:15

and that's a testament to Mr

25:17

Murdoch and his sons. And you

25:20

know, we sort of formed an

25:23

underground army of women who

25:26

found each other. And even

25:28

though we thought Roger was never going to leave, it

25:30

was important for us to to tell

25:32

Paul Weiss our stories so that if

25:35

Roger wasn't guilty of these things, he

25:37

would still be there, you know, he would. So that's

25:40

where we thought. We thought, if it

25:43

wasn't bad, if it

25:45

wasn't pervasive enough, then he would

25:47

survive. But if this was behavior

25:50

that was worthy of being

25:52

fired, then the law should

25:55

prevail. More questions

25:58

after the break. In

26:10

the middle of all this, you

26:12

get a diagnosis that people don't want

26:14

to hear, multiple sclerosis.

26:18

And I'm just struggling

26:21

always when people have chronic illnesses with

26:24

admiration about how you juggle

26:26

all the balls when someone throws you an extra ball and then

26:28

holds one of your hands behind your back, which

26:30

sometimes literally was happening with MS. So,

26:33

how did that play a role in in your career?

26:35

As you're accelerating and succeeding at the same time

26:38

dealing with issues that are at least confusing,

26:40

I'll say, being you know, maybe maybe more

26:43

than that. So I was diagnosed

26:45

in two thousand and five. I had gotten my job

26:47

at Fox at two and two thousand and

26:50

four, and I thought

26:52

it was going to be the end of my career because

26:55

I didn't know anything about m S. I you

26:57

know, I knew that mon

27:00

Tell Williams had it. UM.

27:02

I saw wheelchair when I thought

27:04

of MS. UM. When I was

27:06

giving that diagnosis, I really thought,

27:08

oh my gosh, everything that I had ever worked for in

27:10

my life, including you know, having a great

27:13

boyfriend, was probably gonna leave me. UM.

27:16

But I was lucky

27:19

that I worked with somebody that also

27:21

had MS and that's Neil Cavuto and

27:23

he has not only

27:25

battled MS, but also had cancer.

27:28

So it was Roger going back

27:30

to the wonderful side of Roger that

27:33

when I told him, he said, don't

27:35

worry about it. Well, he will help you in

27:37

any way we can. Uh, And I think

27:39

you need to talk to Neil. Neil has this

27:42

and he'll, you know, he'll be able to sort of

27:44

be a good shoulder for you and

27:46

somebody who can help you understand the illness. So

27:49

I was lucky to have Neil who

27:51

was on TV, who was working at Fox, and

27:54

somebody that I that I could go and talk to you

27:57

that had the same thing, but that

27:59

it wasn't upping him. I

28:01

feel like Neil had he not been

28:03

in my life, I I don't

28:05

know that I would have, you know, been able to tell

28:08

my story or felt secure enough to tell

28:10

other people, because a lot of people told

28:12

me, don't tell anyone that you have this, that

28:15

you know, your career would probably not

28:17

flourish, and having something chronic,

28:19

you're probably going to be out of you know, out

28:22

of work for a long period of time. Um.

28:24

But he was able to sort of make it be

28:26

okay for me to have a safe place

28:29

to be able to talk about

28:31

it and also feel like the company was going

28:34

to back me up. You call mostly Sunny

28:36

a love letter to folks with chronic

28:38

illness. I'm

28:40

curious how you use that, Why use that phraseology?

28:43

Because when I was diagnosed, and I

28:45

really was at the darkest

28:48

point in my life. Um,

28:50

where again I used to think, oh,

28:52

living in New York City and having

28:55

this great career and this was this

28:57

was really what gave me

28:59

so much of confidence and and

29:01

uh and made me feel like I was

29:03

doing something important with my life. Um,

29:06

when you're diagnosed with MS and you're told

29:08

that you know you're going to have this for the rest of your life

29:10

and there is no cure, then

29:13

you're in a really dark place. And all

29:15

I wanted to do is find people

29:17

that we're doing okay. And I tried

29:19

to find books of people that were living

29:22

with m S. I read Terry Garr's book, I read

29:24

Montell's book. I read

29:26

Meredith Fierre's husband's book as well,

29:28

Richard Cohen's book, and even in his

29:30

book he kind of said, don't tell your employer, you

29:32

know, this is a terrible illness. And it was all very

29:35

bleak. But at the time I was looking

29:37

for hopeful stories. So

29:39

I think my answer to that is,

29:42

hopefully this book might be a book

29:44

that someone will read that they that

29:46

will make them feel that there's

29:49

hope that if this girl has this,

29:51

but it is still doing well and is still doing a

29:53

great career and has two beautiful boys and a great

29:55

husband and is very happy and living a

29:57

full life, then that might give them

29:59

the the hope that they need to

30:01

get through the next chapter in their life.

30:05

But my wife always

30:07

has questions. You must have answered

30:09

them so beautifully. You come.

30:13

Come. I never get that. I never get silence. What I

30:15

answer questions, I just get another question

30:17

and another question. This is very good

30:19

at asking the extra questions. What's

30:22

the extra question? Is it a bonus question?

30:26

Now? My my question is for people listening who

30:28

don't know where to turn with something

30:30

like MS is a complicated It

30:32

is complicated, and there's varying. It's

30:35

no one is the same. It's

30:37

like a thumb print, right, We're all

30:40

very different. Some of us have progressive

30:43

forms of the illness where people are in wheelchairs

30:45

and and um go

30:48

a steady decline. But there

30:50

are many of us now that are doing well

30:52

because we have better medications.

30:55

Even fifteen years ago when I was diagnosed,

30:57

there was only a handful of medications. Now we have

30:59

like over doesn't and I'm on something

31:01

brand new that you know, I

31:03

think it is making me feel better. I

31:06

also talked about finding the right doctor.

31:09

Uh, that is so important. UM, I

31:11

went through some not so great

31:13

neurologists. You know that that maybe we're

31:15

smart, but didn't give me that connection

31:18

that I needed, that that contact.

31:20

You know, you're giving somebody a pretty dire diagnosis,

31:23

I would hope that you can at least give

31:25

them some empathy as well. So

31:28

I don't know that the

31:31

progression of MS. What is that diagnoses?

31:33

That look like? Is that she's asking the

31:36

forecast, the forecast for MS, weather,

31:38

weather Medical, mostly

31:42

sonny. And you'll notice that the initials

31:44

of mostly sonny are MS very

31:46

clever. Get I didn't, but I didn't

31:49

notice that until we saw the cover.

31:51

Be honest with you, isn't that crazy?

31:54

Um? So? I

31:57

mean, listen, everybody's different. But I believe

31:59

because I was diagnosed relatively

32:01

early when we

32:03

saw the symptoms, that helped me a

32:05

great deal. I look at Selma

32:07

Blair um, and she's doing

32:09

wonderful things for people who are diagnosed

32:12

with MS. But I am

32:14

so mad because I wish she was diagnosed

32:16

sooner. I feel like she probably

32:18

had these symptoms and didn't know what they were. And

32:20

had she been diagnosed when I was diagnosed

32:23

fifteen years ago, maybe she might,

32:25

uh, you know, be living a little

32:27

bit better. But you know, I'm hopeful. I'm

32:29

hopeful my neurologist. Every time I walk

32:32

in, she's like, we're getting there, j D.

32:34

We're getting there. You know. The medications

32:37

are better, and if not a cure, maybe

32:39

a stop to the progression of the disease. I

32:41

think it's mostly sunny for you too. If you want to hear

32:44

more from Janessteine checked the book out. It's very

32:46

well done. How I Learned to keep smiling

32:48

through the rainiest days. I love how you bring

32:50

it all together. Thank you, Thank you for having me.

32:52

It's a great aunt. Janesstee