Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s wife, Molly McNearney, revealed she’s lost relationships with her own family over their support for President Donald Trump.
During an appearance on the “We Can Do Hard Things” podcast, McNearney admitted she’s been “angry all the time” since discovering that some relatives voted for Trump.
“It hurts me so much because of the personal relationship I now have, where my husband is out there fighting this man,” McNearney said. “To me, them voting for Trump is them not voting for my husband and me and our family.”
McNearney’s comments come just weeks after Kimmel clashed with the president over remarks made about the alleged assassin of Charlie Kirk.
The controversy led Disney to briefly suspend “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” before the network reversed course and brought him back, Fox News reported.
“I unfortunately have kind of lost relationships with people in my family because of it,” McNearney said. “I feel like I’m in constant conflict, and I’m angry all the time, which isn’t healthy at all.”
McNearney claimed the divide isn’t about politics but “family values.” She argued that the Republican Party has abandoned Christian principles, despite her own history of voting Republican when she lived in St. Louis.
“I grew up believing in these Christian ideals of taking care of the sick and taking care of the poor,” she said. “I don’t see that happening with this Republican Party.”
McNearney then took her frustration a step further, admitting that she now associates news stories with her Trump-supporting relatives.
“When I see these terrible stories every day, I’m immediately mad at certain aunts, uncles, cousins who put [Trump] in power,” she said.
Before the 2024 election, McNearney said she made a last-ditch effort to dissuade her relatives from supporting Trump by sending them emails pleading with them to change their votes.
“I’ve sent many emails to family, like right before the election, saying, ‘I’m begging you. Here’s the 10 reasons not to vote for this guy,’” she said. “I either got ignored by 90% of them or got truly insane responses from a few.”
She also admitted that her attempts to reason with her relatives have failed.
“It’s definitely caused a strain,” she said.
Still, McNearney said she’s grown closer to relatives who share her political beliefs.
“I’ve definitely pulled in closer with the family that I feel more aligned with,” she said. “And I hate that this has happened.”
Despite claiming she doesn’t want politics to come between family, McNearney doubled down on her stance.
“Part of me goes, ‘Don’t let politics get in the way,’ but to me, this isn’t politics. It’s truly values. And we just were not aligned anymore.”
Earlier in the interview, McNearney explained she once voted Republican herself before “meeting people from different backgrounds.”
“There’s a little bit of sympathy I have for people in my family that I feel are kind of being deliberately misinformed every day,” she said. “They believe it.”
