Jimmy Kimmel Told His Kids That Trump Took Him Off the Air

Jimmy Kimmel and his wife, Molly McNearney, told their kids the reason his ABC late night show was briefly suspended was because President Donald Trump took it off of the air.

McNearney, who is the co-head writer and an executive producer on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and the comic talked about the September suspension on the We Can Do Hard Things podcast on Thursday. The couple shared that when the news first hit Kimmel was being taken off of the air, they decided to sit down with their 8-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter to explain the situation to them.

“Our son asked if the president had done this,” McNearney said. “And we looked at each other, and we didn’t know quite how to answer that question.”

“I think I said ‘yes,'” Kimmel said.

“We did, we actually both said ‘yes’ at the exact same time,” McNearney confirmed right after.

If you somehow missed the drama, ABC and Disney suspended Kimmel on Sept. 17 for implying the man who killed conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was a Trump supporter — contrary to reports. Here is the comment from his Sept. 15 show that led to his suspension:

The MAGA [is] gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.

The comment led to swift pushback from Nexstar and Sinclair, which control a large chunk of ABC affiliates, and FCC Chair Brendan Carr on Sept. 17 said he felt Kimmel’s comment warranted consequences.

Hours later, Kimmel was suspended — leading to some critics saying ABC and Disney caved to Trump’s administration; White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied that the president put “pressure” on ABC to suspend Kimmel.

Following all of that, ABC announced on Sept. 22 it was lifting Kimmel’s suspension and he returned to his program the following evening. Kimmel did not apologize for his comments — leading Andrew Kolvet, the executive producer of The Charlie Kirk Show, to rip the host as an “unrepentant liar.” 

Trump, as well as the suspension, were a key focus of Kimmel and McNearney’s podcast appearance on Thursday.

McNearney said she has “lost” relationships with family members because they voted for the president.

“To me, them voting for Trump is them not voting for my husband and me and our family,” she explained.

Watch the couple discuss telling their kids about the suspension above.

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