Anchor Maria Bartiromo is gone from Fox News Media, cut loose by the conservative media company on Thursday, September 3, 2026, after a run of more than a decade — and her name began disappearing from the network’s schedule and websites almost at once.
“We thank Maria for her work over the last 12 ½ years and wish her all the best on her next chapter,” the company said in a terse announcement that gave no reason for the split and carried no comment from Bartiromo. Her Fox Business biography page went dark within minutes, leaving an error message that said the person could not be found.
The last program bearing her name aired Thursday morning on Fox Business Network. Bartiromo herself had not turned up on any Fox News Media show since August 9, having dropped out of her own broadcasts weeks ahead of the announcement.
Her Name Comes Off Three Programs
Within hours, the network pulled her name from three programs. “Mornings with Maria” (6-9 a.m. ET) will run as “Mornings with Fox Business” starting Friday, September 4, with anchors rotating through. “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street” (Fridays, 7-7:30 p.m. ET) becomes “FBN’s Wall Street,” with Fox Business anchor Cheryl Casone in the chair this week and rotating hosts to follow. Over on Fox News Channel, Jason Chaffetz takes “Sunday Morning Futures” (10-11 a.m. ET) on Sunday, September 6, and a permanent host will be named later. A new weekday lineup is coming in the next few weeks, Fox Business said.
No Explanation From Either Side
Neither party said publicly why the relationship ended. One source close to the matter, speaking without authorization, called the split a business decision.
On September 4, attorney Bryan Freedman confirmed that he is representing Bartiromo and disputed Fox’s account. “The irresponsible reports that have been published stating that Maria Bartiromo was fired or is no longer an employee of Fox are absolutely and unequivocally false,” Freedman said. “Make no mistake, we have the receipts and witnesses and they will come out whether through the courthouse or otherwise. Those reporting her firing or the incredulous facts supporting that fiction have exhibited a complete and utter reckless disregard for the truth.”
Daily Beast reporter Josh Fiallo wrote that Freedman is “threatening a legal showdown,” and that the attorney declined to provide the proof he claims to have.
People with knowledge of the situation pointed to a possible trigger: Bartiromo handed Fox’s internal company texts to the Trump White House, they said, and that choice may be what finally broke the relationship. Media newsletter Status reported that Bartiromo shared with the White House Fox’s confidential internal guidance about President Donald Trump’s false election claims, which explained why the network avoided covering the debunked claims during his prime-time July address to the nation. Sharing confidential material outside the company would likely violate her employment terms.
Puck’s Dylan Byers cited sources giving a different explanation: Bartiromo intended to pursue a story on election conspiracies connected with China, prompting a Fox Business executive to tell producers the story could not run.
Her pay ran to roughly $6 million a year, and Fox Corporation Chairman Emeritus Rupert Murdoch had long been a champion of hers, even as her shows created legal trouble for the network. Fox let go her executive producer, Patrick Ignozzi, as well.
Voting-Machine Lawsuits Trail Her Exit
Fox’s expensive election-defamation cases turned on her programs. Dominion Voting Systems sued in 2021 for $1.6 billion, and its complaint said the network knowingly broadcast false assertions that Dominion had rigged the 2020 presidential race, in part to avoid losing furious viewers. Fox paid $787.5 million to settle with the trial about to begin in 2023.
Another case remains open. Smartmatic, based in London, contends that Fox’s broadcast of bogus voter-fraud claims damaged its ability to grow in the United States. The company is asking for $2.7 billion, and trial is set for next year. Among the defendants is Bartiromo, who until Thursday was the last individual defendant still on Fox’s payroll. Attorneys for the network appeared at a hearing in that case on Thursday morning.
The litigation surfaced unflattering episodes. A guest and Bartiromo asserted electoral fraud during a November 2020 segment, resting the claim on a memo whose author had said the wind speaks to her and had conceded that her own allegations sounded far-fetched. Former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell, in a separate interview, aired unproven fraud claims that Bartiromo let stand without pushback. She has denied that she personally pressed then-Attorney General William Barr to investigate voter-fraud claims, saying she was simply doing a journalist’s job by asking follow-up questions.
In June, Bartiromo delivered an on-air apology after entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” personality Kevin O’Leary, appearing on her program a month earlier, had falsely claimed that opposition to a data center he hoped to build in Utah was being funded by Chinese money.
Trump has sat for numerous interviews with her and has described her as a great reporter; his praise in July came in a social media post calling her fantastic. On the night of Thursday, September 3, he posted on Truth Social: “I can’t believe Maria Bartiromo is no longer going to have her great show(s) on FoxNews/Business.” He added, “Three different shows, always number one,” called her “a total professional, and a true warrior,” said “Her fans, of which there are many, will not be happy,” and ended, “God bless you, Maria!”
Vice President JD Vance told reporters on Thursday afternoon, “I love Maria,” adding that he had not talked with her and did not know the backstory. The vacant White House press secretary job is not one she is expected to take, an unnamed source said.
Trump appointed Bartiromo to the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Fiallo reported. Fiallo also reported that Trump’s July prime-time address claimed China interfered in the 2020 election, and sources told Mediaite that the supposed leak was “not the only reason” for her exit.
From the Exchange Floor to Fox Stardom
Bartiromo joined Fox Business Network in 2014 as a financial markets journalist and the channel’s global markets editor, and she ultimately anchored upward of 16 hours a week across Fox Business and Fox News. She had spent nearly 21 years at CNBC before that, hosting “Closing Bell” and becoming the first person to report live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Earlier still, she worked at CNN.
A documentary she made about Google earned her an Emmy Award, and she picked up the nickname “Money Honey,” a label she later said gave her misgivings. Joey Ramone of the Ramones recorded a song titled “Maria Bartiromo,” released on his posthumous 2002 album “Don’t Worry About Me,” and she played herself in the 2010 film “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” opposite Michael Douglas’ Gordon Gekko.
Her exit lengthens a list of Fox departures tied to election-fraud coverage and other controversies. Lou Dobbs, her former Fox colleague, who has since died, lost his job one day after Smartmatic filed its suit in early 2021. Tucker Carlson, another former Fox host, was pushed out in 2023 on the heels of the Dominion settlement and within days of a lawsuit that former producer Abby Grossberg brought against him over workplace issues. Trump in 2025 named former Fox host Jeanine Pirro, a defendant in both voting-machine cases, U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C.
