Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov has opened up about one of the most painful days of her life, revealing that she learned her father was nearing death while she was preparing to get married.
Tarlov, 42, recounts the experience in her upcoming book, “I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends,” which is scheduled for release Sept. 15.
The “Five” co-host describes a whirlwind period in 2021 in which she became engaged, married her husband, Brian, and prepared to welcome their first child.
But amid those milestones, Tarlov was also watching her father’s lengthy battle with tongue cancer reach its final stages.
Her father had first been diagnosed with the disease in 2007. By the time of Tarlov’s wedding, he was receiving treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
Tarlov writes that she had never spent much time imagining her eventual wedding when she was younger and was far more focused on finding the person she wanted to marry.
When the day finally arrived, she was 12 weeks pregnant and wearing what she described as a “gorgeous short, pink-lace dress with feathers.”
The excitement was overshadowed by devastating news.
“The bad news: It was the day I found out that my dad was going to die very soon,” Tarlov wrote, according to an excerpt reported by People.
Tarlov and her husband had originally planned a small civil ceremony at San Francisco City Hall with only the two of them.
Those plans changed after her father told her he wanted to see his daughter get married.
The couple instead arranged a ceremony in a park near her parents’ apartment, overlooking the Statue of Liberty, followed by a gathering of about 20 friends and family members at a neighborhood restaurant Tarlov had known since childhood.
Signs that the wedding would not unfold as planned began appearing the night before.
Tarlov said her father felt too sick to meet with friends who had flown from Los Angeles to visit him.
“That was sign number one that the wedding wouldn’t go as planned,” she recalled.
The following morning brought an even more serious development.
“At ten in the morning on our wedding day, with the ceremony scheduled in four hours, my mom told me that she had to take him to the hospital,” Tarlov wrote.
At the time, Tarlov was already in the middle of hair and makeup preparations for the ceremony.
Her father died in July 2021, leaving Tarlov to process the loss while pregnant with her first daughter and approaching a major transition in her television career.
Tarlov said her father had closely followed her Fox News appearances and was proud of her success, though watching her debate the network’s other personalities sometimes made him uncomfortable, per Irish Star.
She recalled that her mother would occasionally record “The Five” and screen episodes before allowing her father to watch so he could avoid seeing his daughter get shouted down during contentious segments.
“Though he loved what I did and was very proud, he could never get past the concern he felt that his little girl would get shouted down,” Tarlov wrote.
She said that in the months before his death, however, he had become increasingly excited about her work and the confidence she was developing on television.
Several months later, when Tarlov was eight months pregnant, Fox News selected her to become a regular co-host on “The Five.”
Tarlov also recalled becoming emotional on air after her father’s death while discussing a charity event organized by Jon Stewart and Pete Davidson to support 9/11 first responders.
As she began talking about her father, Tarlov said she started crying during the broadcast.
Will Cain, who was filling in for Jesse Watters that day, placed his hand on her shoulder as she struggled through the moment.
Tarlov’s new book uses experiences including her father’s death, marriage and television career to explore how she developed her voice while navigating personal relationships and intense political disagreements.
