Maria Bartiromo is leaving Fox News Media after more than 12 years with the network, but one big question remains unanswered: why is she leaving? Fox announced on Thursday that Bartiromo was no longer with the company, effective immediately. The network thanked her for her 12-and-a-half years of work and wished her well, but gave no reason for the sudden departure. Her exit was particularly unexpected because Bartiromo had been on television earlier in the day.
She hosted the final episode of Mornings with Maria on Fox Business on Thursday morning. From Friday, the programme will simply be called Mornings with Fox Business and will have rotating anchors. Her other shows are changing too. Maria Bartiromo's Wall Street is being renamed FBN's Wall Street, while Jason Chaffetz will temporarily take over her Sunday programme, Sunday Morning Futures.
Bartiromo also had a long career before Fox. She spent 20 years at CNBC, where she became one of the best-known faces in financial television and earned the nickname "Money Honey." She left CNBC in 2013 when her contract expired and moved to Fox Business. Over the years, she became closely associated with Donald Trump and his political movement, particularly during his first presidential term and after the 2020 election.
Her coverage of Trump's claims about election fraud also put her at the centre of controversy surrounding Fox's election coverage. Bartiromo has also not publicly explained what happened and why she left the network. Viewers and media analysts continue to speculate about the abrupt nature of her departure from the prominent news organization.