Sean Hannity speaking onstage at an event in a suit© Terry Wyatt/Getty Images

Sean Hannity’s ex-wife, Jill Rhodes, notably ignored two major red flags in their relationship that surfaced early on. During a 2011 chat with Newsmax, the Fox News anchor recalled how he first laid eyes on his future wife when he was reading a local Huntsville newspaper and Hannity spotted the photo of her that was typically published alongside her political column. However, the controversial commentator accidentally confirmed that his initial interest in her was primarily superficial, confessing, “She was really talented — gifted, but I really just fell in love with the little picture in her column.”

However, it didn’t seem like Rhodes was deterred by Hannity’s surface-level attraction to her when their paths finally crossed at a 1992 mayoral debate, because the political journalist later told People, in 2002, that Rhodes knew that she would walk down the aisle with Hannity someday from the moment she saw him. The couple wound up having a whirlwind romance because the outspoken TV personality landed a job in Atlanta just a few months into their relationship, and Rhodes agreed to move with Hannity under the condition that he pop the question.

The second glaring red flag was that Rhodes was explicitly warned about their marriage. Elsewhere in Hannity’s Newsmax interview, he revealed that Rhodes’ colleagues cautioned her against tying the knot with him because they had heard his radio show. In fact, the divisive media personality acknowledged that even their pastor was iffy about the union after the couple got into a heated argument, recalling, “[The pastor] said, ‘You’re crazy to be marrying this guy,’ because I started arguing about how the church has become too liberal. And I think she left that meeting in tears.”

Sean Hannity Seemingly Wasted No Time In Moving On From His Decades-Long Marriage To Jill Rhodes

Sean Hannity and Ainsley Earhardt smiling© Theo Wargo/Getty Images

Jill Rhodes ultimately ignored their pastor and her colleagues’ concerns, marrying Fox News star Sean Hannity in 1993. As the decades rolled by and the happy couple welcomed two children together, it seemed like she had made the right choice after all. However, in 2020, Rhodes and Hannity announced, in a joint statement to People, that they were parting ways, albeit on good terms. In it, the former couple insisted that they were prioritizing their adult children’s wellbeing going forward, adding, “Amicable agreements were entered into over four years ago between Sean and Jill. They maintain a close relationship as parents to their children.”

Meanwhile, several insiders informed Page Six that the Fox News anchor and his wife had signed off on their divorce papers in 2019 after many years of quiet separation. Later, an insider divulged to the Daily Mail that it was incredibly hard for Rhodes and Hannity’s inner circle to spot that anything was up, never mind that they had split, because they were so good at co-parenting. These sources also contended that the couple’s decades-long marriage had ultimately ended because Hannity’s jam-packed work schedule didn’t leave much room for his family life.

However, just a couple of days after their shock split announcement, an insider dished to Page Six that Ainsley Earhardt had secretly become the Fox News host’s real-life partner two years prior. The source was quick to clarify that the co-stars’ unlikely romantic connection only blossomed after their respective marriages ended, though. In December 2024, Hannity and Earhardt confirmed their engagement to Fox News. Interestingly, we later learned that Hannity’s proposal to Earhardt featured one unconventional detail.