Fox News staffer reassigned after relationship with host Jesse Watters

Fox News staffer reassigned after relationship with host Jesse Watters

Fox News host Jesse Watters engaged in a “consensual relationship” with 25-year-old associate producer Emma DiGiovine.

Fox News has acknowledged that it reassigned a 25-year-old associate producer on Watters’ World after she became romantically involved with host Jesse Watters, a Philadelphia native and a rising star at the network.

Emma DiGiovine, an associate producer on Watters’ World, was transferred to The Ingraham Angle in November after Watters, 39, notified the network’s human resources department about their relationship.

“Within 24 hours of Jesse Watters voluntarily reporting to the Chief of Human Resources in November 2017 that he was in a consensual relationship with a woman on his staff, management met with both parties and a decision was made for the woman to be transferred to work on another program on the network where she currently remains,” a Fox News spokeswoman said in a statement. The network took no action against Watters following his report of the relationship.

According to the New York Daily News, Watters’ wife, Noelle Watters, filed for divorce in October. Watters informed Fox News of his relationship with DiGiovine shortly after the papers were filed. The couple has twin girls.

Watters did not respond to a request for comment.

Watters, a native of Germantown and East Falls, has become one of the most prominent voices on Fox News. In addition to hosting Watters’ World weekly, he took over co-hosting duties on The Five in April following a scheduling shuffle caused by the firing of Bill O’Reilly after the New York Times revealed $45 million in payouts to six former Fox News personalities to settle claims of sexual and verbal assault.

Watters has also become a favorite of Trump, a noted fan of Fox News who has given several exclusive interviews to the up-and-coming host (though he has denied interview requests from other Fox News hosts, like Bret Baier). Last week, Watters dined with Trump and Fox News contributor and former White House staffer Sebastian Gorka at the White House because the president “couldn’t get enough of them on TV,” according to the Daily Beast.

Watters tweeted out a photo of the menu — which included seared sea scallops and hazelnut sable milk chocolate mousse — signed by Trump that read, “To Jesse[,] You are great!”

On Friday, CNN host Jake Tapper, also a Philadelphia native, needled Trump over his decision to dine with Watters and Gorka.

“So you’re the president of the United States of America. You can dine with literally anyone you want to. Titans of industry. Geniuses of the arts. Tech wizards changing everything. World leaders and humanitarian saints,” Tapper wrote on Twitter.

Watters took an abrupt two-day vacation back in April, just a week after starting on The Five, after critics claimed the host made a suggestive remark about first daughter Ivanka Trump.

“It’s funny, the left says they really respect women, and then when given an opportunity to respect a woman like that, they boo and hiss,” Watters said. “So, I don’t really get what’s going on here, but I really liked how she was speaking into that microphone.”

Watters denied the accusations made about his comment, writing on Twitter following the incident he was “referring to Ivanka’s voice and how it resonates like a soon jazz radio DJ.”