Shannon Bream | The Sage Steele Show

Summary

The Sage Steele Show: Shannon Bream Episode Summary

Release Date: June 11, 2025

In this deeply engaging episode of The Sage Steele Show, host Sage Steele sits down with Shannon Bream, a prominent media personality and Fox News Sunday host. Their conversation delves into Shannon's remarkable career journey, personal struggles, unwavering faith, and the resilience that has propelled her to the pinnacle of the journalism industry.

---

1. Reconnecting Old Friends

[00:56] Sage Steele opens the discussion by reminiscing about her long-standing friendship with Shannon Bream, highlighting their shared history in local TV during the late 1990s in Tampa.

Sage Steele: "I got the chance to sit down with a dear old friend of mine...we go way, way, way back to local TV days."

2. Transitioning from Law to Journalism

Shannon recounts her bold decision to leave a lucrative legal career to pursue her passion for journalism, despite starting her internship later than most—at age 28.

Shannon Bream: "I moved from lawyer to working in journalism, and that was my first job there in Tampa."

She describes the challenges of transitioning fields and the mentorship she received from Jeff Godless and Elaine Kahano, which was pivotal in her early career development.

3. Overcoming Workplace Hostility

Shannon shares her difficult experience at WFTS Tampa, where she faced hostility and was ultimately fired by a new manager who harshly criticized her performance. This setback, though painful, became a catalyst for her future success.

Shannon Bream: "He literally told me I was the worst person he'd ever seen on TV...That was the end of my time there."

Despite the negativity, Shannon remained steadfast, believing she was on a destined path, which fueled her determination to excel in journalism.

4. A Pivotal Moment: President Trump's Shooting

One of the most intense moments Shannon discusses is her live coverage on July 13, 2024, when President Donald Trump was shot. She details the adrenaline rush and the composure required to report real-time breaking news amidst chaos.

Shannon Bream: "I was so focused on what I'm doing, I'm not really looking...He stood up. He's walking away."

This experience underscored her ability to remain calm under pressure, a testament to her resilience and professionalism.

5. Personal Struggles and Health Battles

Shannon opens up about her battle with a severe eye condition, Map Dot Fingerprint Dystrophy, which caused chronic pain and double vision. Her candidness about facing depression and suicidal thoughts highlights her vulnerability and strength.

Shannon Bream: "I was living in chronic pain all the time. It took me to a really, really, really dark place."

With unwavering support from her husband, Sheldon, Shannon emphasizes the role of faith in overcoming her health challenges.

6. Faith as a Lifeline

Faith emerges as a central theme in Shannon's life. She discusses how her Christian beliefs provided her with hope and strength during her darkest times, influencing both her personal life and professional ethos.

Shannon Bream: "It makes me cry, honestly... I love when I get to be a messenger for what he wants people to know."

7. Authoring Inspirational Books

Leveraging her platform, Shannon authored a series of bestselling books, starting with "Women of the Bible Speak," which explores the impactful stories of women in the Bible. These works aim to inspire and provide spiritual guidance to her readers.

Shannon Bream: "I found that people are like, I had no idea... All through the Old and New Testaments, there were these women who God really spotlighted."

Her books have touched the lives of many, evidenced by heartfelt messages from readers who found solace and inspiration through her writing.

8. Maintaining Professionalism and Neutrality

In her role at Fox News, Shannon emphasizes the importance of maintaining neutrality, especially in a highly polarized media environment. She discusses strategies for handling live interviews, managing on-air pressures, and dealing with social media criticism without letting it affect her demeanor.

Shannon Bream: "I have to stay neutral. If people are unsure of where I am, I feel like I'm doing my job."

Her approach fosters meaningful conversations and ensures that her reporting remains unbiased and informative.

9. Lessons in Resilience and Empathy

Shannon reflects on how her personal and professional challenges have cultivated a deep sense of empathy and resilience. She advocates for understanding and kindness, both within the competitive media industry and in everyday interactions.

Shannon Bream: "Makes you so much more empathetic... you can just feel for people and have much more grace."

10. Looking Ahead

As the conversation concludes, Shannon expresses her commitment to continuing her work in journalism and her mission to inspire others through her faith-based initiatives. Her journey serves as a powerful example of overcoming adversity with grace and determination.

Shannon Bream: "Even the hard things that I've been through, I wouldn't change anything. It has made me much more empathetic."

---

Notable Quotes:

• Shannon Bream [03:04]: "I was grandma intern. Because I literally was, like, probably 28, 29 when I interned..."

• Shannon Bream [09:43]: "Let their disbelief fuel you and let it be a place where you ask yourself real questions..."

• Shannon Bream [42:45]: "We all have our moments... managing your ego along with your ambition. It's tricky."

• Shannon Bream [58:59]: "I just know how to pray... and it's a great source of strength."

---

Conclusion

This episode of The Sage Steele Show offers an intimate glimpse into Shannon Bream's life, showcasing her unwavering resilience, profound faith, and compassionate nature. Shannon’s story is not just one of professional triumph but also of personal healing and spiritual growth, making it a truly inspiring listen for audiences seeking motivation and hope.

Transcript

[Shannon Bream]

Subtle results still you, but with fewer lines. Botox Cosmetic Adobotulinum Toxinae is a prescription medicine used to temporarily make moderate to severe frown lines, crow's feet and forehead lines look better in adults.

[Unknown Medical Professional]

Effects of Botox Cosmetic may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. Alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems or muscle weakness may be a sign of a life threatening condition. Patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk. Don't receive Botox Cosmetic if you have a skin infection. Side effects may include allergic allergic reactions, injection site pain, headache, eyebrow and eyelid drooping and eyelid swelling. Allergic reactions can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms and dizziness. Tell your doctor about medical history, muscle or nerve conditions including ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, Myasthenia gravis or Lambert Eden syndrome, and medications including Botulinum toxins as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. For full safety information, visit botoxcosmetic.com or call 877-351-0300.

[Shannon Bream]

See for [e-mail] all right, guys, I got the chance to sit down with a dear old friend of mine and I say old only because we go way, way, way back to local TV days. Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream. We worked together in Tampa in the late 90s and to be able to have witnessed her evolution in this industry to be one of the top, top, top in the business has been awesome. What we talked about today, really unforgettable. Yes. Her rise from honestly being a beauty queen, an attorney. I want to try this journalism thing along the way, some really, really tough lessons that changed her. And also we went deep on her health and struggles that really got her into a dark, dark place and how she chose to come out of them. You also don't want to miss the story of where she was on July 13, 2024 when Donald Trump was shot. Shannon Bream was actually right in the thick of things. Live in Pennsylvania. So all those things and much more with my dear friend Shannon Bream on this episode of the Sage. Shannon Ream. I don't know that everybody understands why there might be a love fest today, at least for me. Like, I get emotional when I think about when we first met. A lifetime ago. I know, gosh, we were young and cute.

[Unknown Guest]

I know you're still cute, but now I would say we're old and cute.

[Shannon Bream]

We're just gonna go with it. Yeah, but that was I started at the ABC affiliate in Tampa WFTS in 1998. You came when?

[Unknown Guest]

Probably 99 into 2000 is when I had my midlife crisis.

[Shannon Bream]

Midlife Crisis at age 28, I did.

[Unknown Guest]

I moved from lawyer to working in journalism, and that was my first job there in Tampa.

[Shannon Bream]

And weren't you, like, an intern at first?

[Unknown Guest]

Yes, I was grandma intern. Because I literally was, like, probably 28, 29 when I interned, and everybody else was, like, 20. But I had been a news junkie my whole life. Really wanted to work and the storytelling, the digging, all of that stuff. But I'd gone to law school, business school, and law school, and so I wasn't equipped for it at all. And I thought, I'll do an internship. And I remember talking to Marty Tucker.

[Shannon Bream]

Yes.

[Unknown Guest]

Was an anchor there, and we had a mutual friend, and she was kind enough to let me bug her and ask questions and stuff. And I said, should I go back to school or just do it? And she's like, no, just start doing the work. Get on here. So I called them about doing an internship, and they're like, you can't just come work here for free. You know, like, there has to be a process that you're doing this for an internship. So I fought and fought and fought until University of South Florida there in Tampa. There was a professor there who was like, okay, you're gonna have to take a news writing class, but then I'll sign off for you to do an actual internship. And that's how I ended up there.

[Shannon Bream]

I didn't know that whole backstory. All I know is that when this tall, beautiful, kind soul showed up, and I was like, she's a what? She's an intern. And you left a very lucrative job as an attorney to come down into the filthy trenches of journalism with us. I was like, what is wrong with her? I loved it.

[Unknown Guest]

I was addicted. I mean, from the first time I sat there and listened to the police scanners going. And just, you know, I was making coffee. And back then, to date us, I would have to go through the newspapers and literally clip things out and make files. I mean, that's how old I am. But I could not have been happier. Yes. Huge pay cut. And the thing is, I was an intern there, which I don't think I got paid anything for that.

[Shannon Bream]

Yeah. No.

[Unknown Guest]

But then when I told them the news director at the time, Jeff Gott, was the new director, and I said, I'm going. I'm going. He, for some reason, liked me and was willing to take a chance on me. I said, my Internship is done, but I'd really like to work here. And he's like, no one's offered you a job. I'm like, I know, but I'm going to quit my law firm because I believe and I'm stepping out in faith that I'm going to do this thing. And so he got back to me within a couple weeks and was like, we have this overnight job.

[Shannon Bream]

That's right.

[Unknown Guest]

And so you'll come in and work 2am to 11am you'll make all the phone calls, make the coffee, you'll write for the morning show, you'll work the prompter, and we'll see what else you can do. And it was a huge pay cut and terrible hours, but I was so excited.

[Shannon Bream]

Oh, my gosh, that is the best story. And by the way, it's not like this is in 1968, like, this is relatively recent that you gave up all that to do this. First of all, I must admit, I had not heard the name Jeff Godless in 25 years. And I didn't call him Jeff. We just called him Godless. We thought he was Godless. A godless human on this planet.

[Unknown Guest]

That's what news directors could be, really tough. For whatever reason, he saw something in me and was like, I will be. Give you a chance. And I would go out, you know, with any cameraman or reporter, producer that would let me shadow them, and I would say, let me just watch you. Let me take notes. Let me ask questions. And some of them are like, great. Come on. Do you remember Don Grays?

[Shannon Bream]

Oh, my gosh.

[Unknown Guest]

Was like the reporter of all time. And so he would let me just get in the truck with him and follow him on stories. Show me how he wrote a script. And he was so quick and so good at things. Because I thought, if you're going to go interview someone for a local story, you're going to get two or three minutes of airtime. I got to really do this deep interview and get the sound bites. He'd interview somebody and ask two questions and be like, we're done. And I'm what. What? I'm following with my notepad. And he's like, as soon as you hear the sound bite that you need, you do not need to keep doing the interview. I just learned so much in real time from people like that. But I bring back work to Jeff Godless and say, would you look at what I've done? And he was kind enough to take a look, and he believed there was some potential there. So as long as he Was there. I was in good shape.

[Shannon Bream]

If you're a homeowner, you need to listen to this. When is the last time you checked on your home title? That's the legal proof that you actually own your house. And if you're like me, the answer is never. The problem is that in today's AI and cyber world, scammers are stealing home titles and your equity is the target. Here's how it works. Criminals forge your signature on one document. They use a fake notary stamp, they pay a small fee to your county and boom. Your home title is transferred out of your name. And then they take out loans using your equity or they even sell your property. And you won't even know it's happened until you get a collection or a foreclosure notice. It's crazy. That's why you got to stop what you're doing and find out today. If you're already a victim. Use promo code [e-mail] to make sure your title is still in your name. You'll also get a free title history report and a 14 day free trial of their million dollar triple lock protection 247 monitoring your title, urgent alerts to any changes. And if fraud should happen, they're going to spend up to a million dollars to fix it. So go to hometitlelock.com now. Use promo code sage hometitleock.com promo code sage yeah, well, it is amazing because it just takes one.

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah.

[Shannon Bream]

One person who's like, you know, she's green, she's raw. I mean, there were several people who were like, huh, she's a disaster. But we're going to give her a chance here. And I'm so grateful for those people who actually saw more than what we saw in ourselves is what I firmly believe. It was just such a. It was an awesome time. It was an innocent time, I think before the world kind of got crazy. But I remember, I hope this comes across the right way. I just remember being protective of you. Even though it wasn't like an age thing, it was just because I'd been there a little bit longer and I saw some of the cattiness from women and one in particular, we don't need to mention names. But like I was, I couldn't believe how nasty she was to you. And I remember talking to my mom about it and I was like, this is crazy. These are the women who say that they support other women and they don't. And what my mom told me at that time and many times since then with My own stuff is usually, that woman didn't have a problem with Shane and Bream. She had a problem inside, like herself. But in that moment, it doesn't feel that way. Right. Do you recall?

[Unknown Guest]

I'm sure you do.

[Shannon Bream]

What was that like when you were there and the nicest person. But it was made very clear by some that you weren't wanted.

[Unknown Guest]

Right. And I understood that in that I had no journalism training. So it was. There was a lot of chutzpah for me to think, I can just change fields. I'm going to be done being a lawyer. I'm going to go do this. But I did have the attitude, like, I know I've got a lot to learn, so let me learn from you. And you and Elaine Kahano.

[Shannon Bream]

Oh, I love Elaine. She's done well.

[Unknown Guest]

She's done fantastic. Both of you. I'm like, these two women who stuck their necks out to be kind to me and help me, went to huge places. And I think that said so much about the two of you to say, okay, you clearly don't know what you're doing. And there are clearly people here who are hostile to you being here, but we're gonna be your friends and help you out. And the two of you were like my lifelines there. And I learned so much from you. Not just about the business, but about women who are friends, who help other women and are protective and supportive of them. So for me to watch over the years, the two of you do such amazing things, made me so happy. Cause I thought I could do nothing for you in return. And I was just this crazy lawyer who decided, I'm gonna try to do this business. And the two of you were willing to give me a shot. And not everybody felt that way.

[Shannon Bream]

Well, for sure. And that's what upset me so much. But I think it's also. And we've all been through it in some ways, like when it does happen to you, then you're like, I will never be part of something like that again. It certainly had happened to me before. Men and women, you know, it's just such a cutthroat industry. But how did you kind of push through that? Because the claws were out and everybody saw it and felt it. How did you keep going through that?

[Unknown Guest]

My feelings were definitely hurt. I mean, as a human being. But I was so determined. I thought, I'm giving up so much, like my legal career. I'm not doing this haphazardly. My wonderful husband Sheldon and I, we were married, newly married at that point. And we'd really talked about it, really prayed about it for a year, and I felt like that was my passion. That's what I was supposed to be doing. I didn't realize it would be so rocky up front with some people who are like, oh, no, we do not share your vision for you. You do not belong here. And as I would hear from people, and they would be in the business 10 or 15 years to get to that job there in Tampa, I'd realize, like, okay, I am kind of short circuiting what they had to do to get here. And so I know that I'm coming at this from a place of, I hope, humility, and I have a lot to learn. And hopefully if I stick around and do the overnights and the weekends and take whatever jobs nobody else wants to do, that I'll earn some of their respect. So I thought maybe I'll win them over. But it hurt as a human being to think, oh, boy, they really don't want me here.

[Shannon Bream]

Did you ever hear from any of them?

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah.

[Shannon Bream]

You did?

[Unknown Guest]

Of course. Yes, I've heard from people over the years, and they act like that never happened. You know, I'll get a message on Facebook, and they're like, I always knew you were gonna make it, and I'm so happy for you.

[Shannon Bream]

So gross.

[Unknown Guest]

Or, you know, it's funny to me that they'll even say, like, I remember when people weren't nice to you, and I'm like, and you were one of them.

[Shannon Bream]

You were one of them.

[Unknown Guest]

But listen, you know me. I come from a place of when things didn't go well for me there, and we can talk about that. It was never about revenge. It was just sort of like, let their disbelief fuel you and let it be a place where you ask yourself real questions like, okay, you do have a lot to learn.

[Shannon Bream]

Sure.

[Unknown Guest]

This isn't. You haven't figured it all out, but you knew that.

[Shannon Bream]

But you came in like that with such humility and kindness. I will say I wondered at times, just kind of watching from afar, because I was in the sports department. We had a room about the size of this couch for five of us, four guys and me, you know, and so we would kind of hide out and just watch it all happening. And I thought, okay, this woman comes in and obviously is really smart and has talent. Like, you could see it just in the way that you spoke and presented yourself. And you're gorgeous, right? And so that. And I think a lot of them knew about your past. As. I mean, okay, I never. What's the exact title. I mean, you were Miss. You were part of the Miss America pageant and Ms. USA and Ms. USA. So you're like a pageant girl, basically.

[Unknown Guest]

And people love or hate that. You know, that has a lot of connotations. We say pageant girl for me. Yeah. When I was at Liberty undergrad, I entered and was in the Miss Virginia. Won the Miss Virginia pageant and went on to Miss America and was in the finals there. Terrified out of my skin, like, horrible state. Yeah, it was really amazing. But that paid for school for me. Yeah, the scholarships were amazing. And so I had a really good experience where it's not. Definitely not for everyone, but for me, I wasn't an athlete. I know you find that hard to believe. Wasn't an athlete. So for me, pageants, that was my competitive thing. And it was a way that school, I mean, really smart. I needed help. I mean, my. My parents were really grateful. I borrowed dresses before there was like, rent the Runway, which I think is such an amazing invention. I would borrow or rent a dress from other pageant girls and kind of cobble things together. I didn't go into this, like, JonBenet Ramsay, like, tons of money and a family thing. I didn't start as a kid, but it was something I did in college. And so, yeah, I'm sure that some people would hear that and be like, okay, weirdo. Pageant girl. You know, they just don't get it.

[Shannon Bream]

Like, oh, she thinks because she's this and that.

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah, right.

[Shannon Bream]

I, as, you know, years later, got to host the Miss America pageant twice.

[Unknown Guest]

Yes.

[Shannon Bream]

It was such a cool thing, and I'm so glad that I did. First I was like, I'm a sportscaster. I don't do pageants. It's a competition, and it's a big time competition with so much on the line. What I learned about it, and this is just a quick sidebar, is that not only are the women beautiful and healthy and in good shape, I mean, you hope physically and mentally, everybody's in good shape. But what it takes to get to that point, giving back in your community, obviously academics, but all of the things you have to be the complete package to even get to those early stages. And then the scholarships. I mean, these women are really doing good things with them. So I think that's the part. It's not just hot girls. Right? What did you take from that?

[Unknown Guest]

So much discipline that had to go with it. And I was 19, so I was a baby when I got involved. And some people will do it, compete. For years, I thought it would take me years to get there. It was. I think, you know, as a person of faith, I think God's timing and everything. So for whatever reason, he was like, 19. I'm pushing you out there. You're gonna go do this thing. And I had a lot of fear. I had to deal with, so stage fright and all kinds of performance fears and things that there just wasn't time. It was like, you're doing this. And so it really deepened my prayer life in a lot of ways. There was a moment that I was supposed to go out and talent was really hard for me. I played classical piano, and I was terrified because we couldn't have music. And I just felt so much pressure and that. And I'd played my whole life. But to do it in front of thousands of people or on live TV was a whole different thing. So the night that I was supposed to go play in the Miss Virginia pageant, terrified, I called my mom. I was staying at, you know, there's a hotel, all the people stay in that are competing and stuff. And I call my mom. I was like, can you come over here and pray with me? And she's like, no, I can't, because you're. I can pray with you on the phone, but I gotta get over here. You gotta, like, you know how to pray. You know, you can do this. And I remember, you know, I always would have a Bible with me. But, you know, they're in hotel rooms and stuff, and they always say, like, oh, you don't just turn out and pick a verse. But I was like, lord, I need something. And I remember opening the bible to Psalm 34, and the fourth verse is there. It says, you know, I sought the Lord, and he heard my cries and delivered me from all my fears. And I was like, I don't think that's a coincidence. That's my verse, you know. And I prayed that through that whole Miss America competition thing because it was just so frightening to me when I made it to Miss America. They told us that night they have you sort of. You know how all of it works because you've done it, and you're sort of backstage, and they put everybody out there, and then they say, you come back, but you can't go back to the dressing rooms because they already know who the top 10 are back there. And they're moving your stuff around to a different place. So you're in this holding cell between commercials and things. And I remember one of the producers of the show saying, now, remember, if you make it, you're gonna get to perform for 80 million people. And I thought, I want to just fall through this floor right now. Because as much as I want to compete here, like, that took the breath out of me. So there was just a lot of growing out of my baby faith to say, like, if you feel like the Lord is guiding you in this, like, he's going to get you through it. And I had a time when I competed in a local pageant where I got up there and freaked out and forgot my piece and just kind of stared out into the darkness, really, and had to, like, pull it back together and finish that piece and then go off stage and cry in the back. So I knew what it was like to be that afraid and to say, I'm gonna do this. And it's not me. It's. It's his strength working through me in this. Wow. So people don't think of pageants as, like, a big spiritual growth kind of place, but for me, it was because.

[Shannon Bream]

I was young, though, to be 19 and to look to God at that moment, that, to me, is impressive.

[Unknown Guest]

I needed it.

[Shannon Bream]

Yeah, well, it worked. It worked quite well. I wonder, because I remember being on stage and my heart was racing for these young women with, yeah, 80 million people watching. And I'm just holding the mic and trying not to screw that part up, you know, but when you look back at that time, younger and then to television and that growth, because maybe similar but different, where when that red light's on and you're. It's one thing to be taping something and then you're live, so you're starting from scratch in this career, did those kind of fears come back? How much were you able to draw from that time on the stage in front of 8 million people?

[Unknown Guest]

Well, I think, too, at that point, I had realized, like, even if you do, the worst happens and this piece goes terribly and you go running off the stage, like, the sun does come up the next day. I mean, I did learn so much, though, in having to travel and speak to all kinds of different groups as a kid. Really, I was a kid at that point. But speaking to a men's business, Rotary group, or a group of farmers or whatever it was, I was put in so many different situations that I feel like it was preparing me for something I didn't realize I was going to end up doing. And I do think with live tv, like, you just got to do it. You know, it's like I always say that even if I'm feeling like, you know, Fox News Sunday is coming Together on a Sunday morning. We're live at 9am East Coast. And so even if I always do a call with Shell, and he always does a little prayer with me before the show, and that's usually 8:30, 8, 45. And I'm. And he'll say, how you feeling? And sometimes, like, not prepared. Don't feel like this was any. Like, okay. But at 9 o', clock, it's the show starting.

[Shannon Bream]

Yeah.

[Unknown Guest]

So live TV is just. It is what it is, you know?

[Shannon Bream]

But I. I like what you said about the sun coming up. And I've said something similar where, okay, no matter what happens, like, I'm gonna survive, I think. I hope. And then you're like, okay. Every time I push through that fear at that hard time, you realize, I'm still here, I can do it. And I think the next time it's a little bit easier, slightly easier to go stand back up in front of that camera again.

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah. You've had to do it many times.

[Shannon Bream]

And I wanted to vomit.

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah. There are times where you're like, your head and your heart are screaming at you so much. I mean, for me, I think the most terrified. I don't know if terrified is the right word, but the most having to fight my adrenaline that was screaming at me was I happened to be on the air when President Trump got shot.

[Shannon Bream]

I was watching you and I.

[Unknown Guest]

It took everything I could to override what was happening inside. Because your heart. I felt like if I looked down, I could have seen it beating through my jacket. Because it was just one of those moments where there's a while we didn't know if he'd been wounded in his, you know, physical torso or where it was. It's happening in real time, and there's just no time to think about that. But it's funny because I had people. There was a calmness that settled over me, like, you have a job to do and this is what you do. And to later have people look down at my phone, like, four hours later when I got off, and people say, like, I'm praying for you right now. Praying for you right now. Praying for your state of mind, you know, so it's almost like I had a sense of that, that I wasn't alone doing that.

[Shannon Bream]

Oh, no, you were not for sure. I. It's one of those moments where we will all remember where we were. And, yeah, you happen to be in front of the world once again. You like these moments with 89 people watching, don't you?

[Unknown Guest]

I like to be as terrified as Possible as often as possible.

[Shannon Bream]

And then it's this. Yeah, you did it so brilliantly. And I remember watching. And of course, I actually, I started crying because of what was happening and just the, the evil nature of where everything had gone. And then, yeah, I'm watching my girl. And I don't know if I texted you or Shel. And I was just like, oh, my gosh, she's crushing this. Which sounds very sportsy. In an appropriate time, maybe, but I don't know that. Yeah, people don't understand what that, what that moment is like, because it's not about you, of course, but, you know, the magnitude of the situation, the importance of it, the gravity of it, and you want to represent your network yourself, President Trump's family. Right. So I don't know that you went to break, did you?

[Unknown Guest]

We didn't for a long time.

[Shannon Bream]

You just kept going.

[Unknown Guest]

I stayed on for four hours and luckily. And we were at the RNC for the convention, obviously he was going to be arriving the next day, I guess it was. And he was at that huge rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. And the only reason I was doing that as a Saturday night show is because they asked me, you're going to be in Milwaukee for the rnc. We think he might roll out his VP pick at the, at this Butler thing. So can you do special coverage on Saturday night since you're going to be there for Fox News Sunday the next morning? And I said, sure, we'll do it. None of us had any idea what that day was going to turn into. But as I had other great coworkers of mine arrive in Milwaukee, they'd literally get off the plane and came to where we work because we were on the patio of a hotel. We just randomly sat up. We're going to do a one hour show here. We're going to introduce the Butler speech. He usually goes for an hour or two and then I'll wrap out of it. That's all we were going to do. But that hotel patio turned into, you know, ground zero for us getting on the air. So Bill Hemmer showed up a couple hours into it and then others. And so it was just. You just go until you don't.

[Shannon Bream]

When you went off the air and I forgot. Who did you toss to?

[Unknown Guest]

I think Hemmer had joined me then and he kind of picked up from there. Brett may have joined at some point.

[Shannon Bream]

Yeah, I think so. When you tossed to them and took off the mic and walked off set, what were you thinking?

[Unknown Guest]

It was just surreal. I think we knew at that Point the president was going to be. He wasn't the president then, but running again, that he was safe and he was going to be fine. The first probably 30 to 60 minutes, we didn't know. I'm getting texts from people all over my phone who are saying different things, but I'm. I'm so focused on what I'm doing, I'm not really looking. So it's later when I finally look down at texts, I have a couple people from his inner circle saying, I talked to him, he's okay. And, you know, we always want to double trouble source that stuff, because I. In the moment that it happened, if you remember, it happened so quickly, and we weren't sure what we had seen exactly where these fireworks. Did he get hit by something? Did he take a hit to the body where, you know, and he. When he got up, somebody's got the red MAGA hat. I can't remember if it's him or Secret Service as they're lifting him up. So I saw red on him. So in my mind, I'm thinking, did he take a direct hit here? I didn't know. And you never. Because, you know, America is freaking out. Like, you do not want to speculate at all. And I'm saying, this doesn't look good. But he stood up. He's walking away. So it was just kind of when I walked away from that, the set four hours later, we had amassed this whole operation there. And my assistant was there, and I think I just hugged her. And it was sort of like, you know, this is crazy, but thank God we think he's fine. You know, we just knew in that moment. I don't think, you know, in the moment. It takes a little. It took me a little bit further that night. Like, that was history that we were covering there in real time.

[Shannon Bream]

And.

[Unknown Guest]

And this. This crazy campaign is never going to be the same. This country is going to be changed by that moment, too. So hopefully we handled it responsibly.

[Shannon Bream]

What did Sheldon say to you?

[Unknown Guest]

I mean, he's obviously my biggest Support and cheerleader 24 7. And I don't remember our exact conversation, but I know I was getting texts from him along the way, and he was the first text that I sent, because I'm sitting there in the chair. I feel like he was at a baseball game. We've got his cousin's son who is a great high school baseball player, and I feel like he was at a game for him. I could be wrong about that. But he was at an athletic event of some Kind. So I had been sitting in the chair I just tossed to then running for, but President Trump. And so he had started. You know, there was a little bit of start before the shots rang out. And so I had still had my earpiece in. And I'm looking at the crew, and I'm like, did I just hear that? Did we just hear that? And none of us had walked away from our spots. I was still in the chair. And so the control room is quickly screaming into my ear like, we're going to take this live. We got to take this live. Don't go anywhere. We got to figure this out and take this live. So it was less than a minute, and it was just enough time for me to shoot off a text to him. I think the. I think President Trump's been shot. And there are all kinds of misspellings and crazy things, and I don't know that I looked at that again for a couple of hours. But he's always a cheerleader, whether I'm doing terrible or great. And he will tell you the truth. I think this is a great thing. In his spouse, He's a terrible liar, which I think is a good quality. In his spouse.

[Shannon Bream]

Yes.

[Unknown Guest]

But don't ask, Sheldon, unless you want to know the truth. Really? Your outfit about how your show went or anything else. I think it's a good quality. He's not capable of flying, but he does it nicely.

[Shannon Bream]

He's so calm.

[Unknown Guest]

He does. But you gotta know, if you ask, you're gonna get that.

[Shannon Bream]

You're going to get it. Yes. I hope you were proud in that moment, though, because millions of people were proud of you. And that is. There is no way to prepare. I mean, you can do all the live shots and all the breaking news for hurricane coverage in Tampa when you like, all the things. And there was never anything like that during this age with technology, et cetera. And, Lord willing, there'll never be another moment like it. And you. I thought it was just. It did bring me back. I mean, once, of course, yes, the President's alive, et cetera. But then I'm thinking the personal side, it did bring me back to Tampa with you and those people who were like, yeah, get her out. She's not worth it. Including the way your tenure there ended, Right?

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah. Well, the funny thing is, I would have thought back there in Tampa, like, I can handle anything. I can do this TV thing. I can figure this out. But if I hadn't had 20 years of doing live television, I don't know that I would have Been equipped for an assassination attempt in real time. So baby me would have thought, like, oh, I can handle anything. I had a lot to learn. And so I'd been there on air for a very short time because I really was behind the scenes. And I somehow. I came in one day and Jeff Godless had said to me in a little memo in my mailbox, because, yeah, we had email, but we still did things in paper.

[Shannon Bream]

Yes.

[Unknown Guest]

And he was like, if you get all your overnight stuff done and we have a side story that breaks and we need someone, we're going to consider sending you out. So I'd only been at that for a couple months or so, and then I came in one day. Jeff's gone, his boss is gone. There was complete management, I don't think ownership change of the station, but management change of the station. So we had a new guy, and all of the experienced reporters knew enough to be freaked out, you know, because they were like, oh, when new people come in, everything changes. And I thought, I'm making no money. I'm doing, like 10 jobs. I'm the happiest person here. I felt safe, yeah, in some respect. Not that I was some great reporter, but just that, you know, I was giving it 110% all the time. So it was two weeks into the new guy being there, and I got called in on a Friday, and I walked in and I thought, I'm gonna get some promotion. Like, he's seen the light, that I'm so great. Well, the head of HR was sitting there. And if the head of HR is sitting there and you get a Friday afternoon meeting, you're not getting promoted. You know, I found out really quickly, and he just lit into me. It wasn't just, hey, we don't think this is working. We're gonna let you go. It was. He literally told me I was the worst person he'd ever seen on tv. And he said, you're never gonna make it in this business. And I hope you're a better lawyer than you're a reporter, because you need to go back to that. And I was so shocked. Again, not that I thought that I was Diane Sawyer or something at that point, but I really thought that I was learning the ropes and that I was growing and that I would have a chance to keep learning. Well, listen, it's not his job to have me on a paid learn as you go journalism program. So I kind of gathered myself together and thank God for soundproof edit base, because I literally just went in one and cried for, like, two Hours calling everyone that I thought might love me. Like, I called Shell. I had just signed with an agent. I called her, like, I know I'm your worst client ever. You just signed me. And I just got fired from my first job. Call my parents. I just thought, did I get this all wrong? Leaving my legal career, blowing that all up to come do this? And this guy said, I'm basically the worst person ever. And so that was the end of my time there.

[Shannon Bream]

Oh, my gosh.

[Unknown Guest]

It was not pleasant.

[Shannon Bream]

You know, there are ways to fire people. And maybe gently, maybe. I mean, when you know someone is working her tail off, a good person, a good teammate. You got it. Almost goes back to what my mother said about that. Something within them. But, I mean, what did you say to him?

[Unknown Guest]

I don't even remember saying it.

[Shannon Bream]

It's like a blur, right?

[Unknown Guest]

I think I was sort of like, well, thank you. I mean, I can't. I'm such a polite person. Like, I probably was like, you are. I better just get my stuff and get out of. I was super humiliated. And there were a lot of good things that came from that. You're not gonna. When you get punched in the gut, you're not like, immediately embracing it. Like, thank you for telling me the truth about how terrible I am. But it made me do a lot of gut checks. Like, okay, go watch every tape. Just see how bad you are. Like, what do you really need to learn to get onto the level of even being worthy of being with these co workers and being in this place. And so he kicked me out the nest because the truth be told, I don't know about you, if you always aspired to going to the national level or what you were going to do, I think I would have been happy at that Tampa station. At least I thought at the time, like, if I could ever get a 6 o' clock anchoring job or 11 o' clock anchoring job and stay in this community and report here, like, this would be so awesome. So in a lot of ways, he kicked me out of the nest that I didn't think I wanted to do that. But. But he propelled me to something else I probably wouldn't have done. So in that way, I'm grateful, but not at the time. I was not grateful. I was humiliated because it made me think. Every one of these people at the station who told me I didn't belong here are all laughing at me as I pack up my stuff and leave. That's how it felt at the time.

[Shannon Bream]

And of course, they all knew and Those select few who weren't nice before were validated in many ways. Yeah, I've heard you tell the story before. I know we talked about it before, but it broke me because it's like, that's not supposed to happen to good people.

[Unknown Guest]

I know, the jerks, they deserve that stuff.

[Shannon Bream]

But that.

[Unknown Guest]

So.

[Shannon Bream]

Was there a moment when you thought, maybe I do need to go back to being an attorney at Sabre and there's a guaranteed paycheck, right?

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah, I definitely had moments because it took me forever to find my next job because I didn't really have much experience for a resume. And so what I ended up doing was I talked to our weekend team there at the station, and I was like, if I come on a Saturday or Sunday, could I come and film some stuff and put together a fake resume tape? Because I don't really have much to put on there. I had, you know, a few reports in the field and things. And so I was still so naive at that point, not realizing how many people that would require, you know, in the control room, running the cameras, running my mic, rolling the tape. Like, I just still was so much in a learning mode that I didn't know what I didn't know, which, you know, you always. Part of your life that's going to be. You just don't know what you don't know. So I bought a bunch of food because that always works in the newsroom.

[Shannon Bream]

Always.

[Unknown Guest]

I brought in a ton of food, and I brought, like, five different blazers. And so I would sit at the desk and, like, read a couple stories and change my blazer. Like, oh, I've done all these different broadcasts and newscasts. I'd never anchored anything, so I wove that together with what I had a few reports in the field, and that became my tape. And so I sent it everywhere. And I can remember thinking, well, I'll go to a top 25 market. Anywhere in the top 25. Then you're like, top 50. And then you're like, I'll go anywhere in the English speaking world that will have me. You know, that's my only language. I gotta go wherever you could use me. And I just learned a ton of humility through that because it was like, you may have started to believe in yourself a little bit, but you have nothing to offer. You don't have the resume, you don't have the education. You're going to have to be willing to say, I don't know anything, and I'm going to learn. And so finally, it was months. I finally got a Call in Charlotte, where I ended up going to WBTV and learned so much there and made lifelong friends there. So it. It was a painful period. And I did think many times during that, do I go back to practicing law. I was miserable doing that. But it was a great paycheck and it was what I knew.

[Shannon Bream]

Yeah.

[Unknown Guest]

But I still had this burning thing inside of me that. No, that's. That's not your passion. That's not what you were made for.

[Shannon Bream]

So it's so funny, too, because I. I do sound like the old grandpa, get off my lawn person now, because when you talk about a reel, that is an actual beta tape, right? And so when you talk about needing a team because you have to have everybody in the control room, but then if you don't know how to edit, you have to, like, you went in the edit base and did this and push button and rewind, and then you had to, like, make 20 of them, which I could never afford to go to Target or Walmart and get a stack of 20. I guess at that point you dub it from beta to VHS and send separate ones to random stations around the country. And you hope you hear back.

[Unknown Guest]

And you don't email them.

[Shannon Bream]

Like, you call them back.

[Unknown Guest]

Right, right, right. It wasn't an email thing. Where now you. I have young people that I, you know, they'll come through in our college internship program. And then you end up mentoring them over the years, and now they can just send us links like, hey, check out my latest thing. How. What suggestions would you have? And I'm like, this is great. It's such a speedy process. But you're mailing literal tapes or DVDs at some point back then, and you're like, is anyone even opening these? I mean, I don't. I don't even know.

[Shannon Bream]

I put them in, like, hot pink envelopes that would stand out in the stack of 30 other res they got from kids our age who all just wanted to weigh in. But I think that speaks to your tenacity. You might not have been an athlete, but you are a competitive soul. Obviously, between the Miss America, Miss USA stuff to this. And I remember seeing when you got to Charlotte and how long were you there?

[Unknown Guest]

I was there for three years and.

[Shannon Bream]

Then to D.C. yeah.

[Unknown Guest]

And I have to say a quick aside about Charlotte, where I did make lifelong friends and people who had mercy on me and were like, let me help you, young whippersnapper. And I went there to interview for a reporting job. And when I got there, they said to me, hey, I Think that we're going to have a contract change with one of our morning anchors. Can we put you on the set to anchor? We've seen your tape, so we know you anchor. I was like, right, the day with five blazers. Yes, you saw the five different blazers in my fake anchoring tape. So they threw me onto the set with John Carter, who I would go on to anchor the morning show with, who was such a sweet soul. I love him so much. He's such a great guy. And they just put stuff in the prompter and we all started fake anchoring a show and then they're like running with copy. Oh, there's been a bus wreck. And so it's got all these local towns throughout North Carolina. I'm trying not to butcher the names of these different places that I have no idea. And so at the end of that interview for the reporter position, they said, we actually want to offer you this morning anchoring job. And so there were just doors that opened organically that I felt was the Lord leading me. And I had a great three years there in Charlotte. And then I got a call about going to NBC in Washington, the local NBC affiliate.

[Shannon Bream]

Yeah, yeah, NBC4.

[Unknown Guest]

Right.

[Shannon Bream]

But real quick, let's give you some credit for getting fired in a very unceremonial, ugly way, but still having the, you know what to go call those people and say, can I come back in into the studio? Did the HR person, did they have to sneak you in?

[Unknown Guest]

I don't think anybody knew that I was there on the weekend. Like, no management, that's what I mean. Think that they knew at all. And for whatever reason, the weekend team just had kind of a soft heart decision.

[Shannon Bream]

Who was it?

[Unknown Guest]

Okay, I can't remember who was there at the time. I didn't ask any of the on air people. I was like, let me come in when nobody's going to be here on the tv. And then I can just run and sit on this on the set for, you know, 30 minutes. But somebody had to run the prompter for me. Like somebody had to. These were the kindest people that they were willing to do that. And all I gave them was, you know, some food and a big thank you. And, you know, so thank you to any of them who are watching now that you had mercy on me to let me do that.

[Shannon Bream]

And you didn't really respond to any of the people who reached out since and said, I knew it. I knew you'd be great.

[Unknown Guest]

I always just respond like, you know, I'm so glad I got a start There in Tampa, it was what led to everything. And just try to be diplomatic.

[Shannon Bream]

It's so good, it's annoying. I really want you to crush one.

[Unknown Guest]

Of them, I feel like. And the crazy thing is, when we still lived in Tampa before, I had found another thing, but I'd lost my job there at wfts. We lived, you remember, along Bayshore there in Tampa. Like, everybody runs and rollerblades and does all that stuff out there. And we live not far from there. So I had plenty of time, you know, to go for walks and do that kind of thing. And Sheldon and I were together. My husband, you know, Sheldon. But for those who don't know, we were out for a walk. I don't know if we were actually jogging, whatever. And there was a guy who came by that had a really distinctive T shirt on. Like, you wouldn't miss it. And so he had gone by a ways. And I said to Sheldon, after he was gone away, I said, that was. And I named the guy who fired me. And I said, did you see the guy with a crazy T shirt? He's like, oh, yeah, I saw that. And I was like, that was him. And he's like, I'll be right back. I'm like, no, no, that's not how this works. Because he is the most, you know, laid back soul, unless it comes to defending me or his family or something. I mean, he's the most chill person. But I think we both realized that that was not a conversation that needed to happen. But I've had a lot of people ask me about him over. And I have heard from Jeff Godless, who was the news director who gave me the chance, who has been very kind over the years to say, like, I'm so happy for you.

[Shannon Bream]

Good.

[Unknown Guest]

But the guy who fired me, I've never heard from, and I don't wish him any will, because it really did push me to a place that I'm so happy and blessed to be.

[Shannon Bream]

No, for sure. And I think that they probably know deep down that they didn't handle it the best way. And I hope that maybe they learned from it. Maybe they went home feeling a little guilty and just never said anything so that no one else has to go through it. However, I agree, like, those things do happen for a reason, and you'll never forget it. How much has it driven you?

[Unknown Guest]

A lot. Because I thought, okay, let's use this to admit that maybe he could have said that a more diplomatic way. But you have things to learn. Let's go rewatch every tape you have and not feeling like I'm going to prove him wrong, but believing that I was on my God given path and if you are following that, he's going to kick down doors I never could kick down. And times I tried to push things open like I'm ready for this or I want this job. And that door stayed firmly closed. There was protection in that. So I went at it believing that I was on the path God had me on. So eventually he would guide and open the doors when the time was right. But I had work to do. I mean, he doesn't just say like, I will answer all your prayers and give you everything you want. He does expect us to be disciplined and put in the work and do our part of the bargain. And so I just felt like as long as I'm doing that, he will guide the rest of the process. And I've had to rely on that many times over the years.

[Shannon Bream]

Yeah, your kindness is what has always just blown me away. When I wanted to, you know, yell and scream at people along the way just because, like why, why, why? But it's interesting then to watch the progression and you have somehow always just stayed above it, unlike me. I'll go there, get in trouble.

[Unknown Guest]

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

[Shannon Bream]

But like you've stayed above it and I, and to see the evolution. And then of course everything that you've done on Fox News, how have you, I mean, I think I know your answer, but how have you not let any of the ugliness of what this industry can be, not always, but certainly is in many ways not change you and remain the kindest soul in this business?

[Unknown Guest]

Well, we all have our moments, you know, I mean, we all have our moments and there's certainly times I felt super frustrated or disrespected or, you know, now that we're operating in this place where social media is a dumpster fire. And as you and I were coming up through the business that was starting to build where you now have people at home completely anonymously sitting at home telling you you're terrible or you're not smart or you've gained weight or whatever you know, people can say from the confines of their. So we have to deal with that in the business now too. And I pretty much take a hands off approach like I'll put out, but I don't try to take a lot of it in like reading comments and stuff. And I even get on Sheldon, like don't read comments because he's going to want to defend me. And of course if there's nothing Most of the times, it's just not worth getting engaged with somebody because if they're already spewing that level of venom, either they're projecting because they're frustrated about a political situation or something else. Because I can do the same show and have people say to me, like, why are you so rude and hate everyone in the Trump administration? Same show. Also get a post that says, you obviously get your talking points directly from Donald Trump. So I'm like, I think people get very frustrated. It is a really divided time. So I think we have so many different levels. There are people within the business that will make trouble for you and make your life uncomfortable, but the people outside the business that now we have to hear those voices, too. So knowing your boundaries, I think is a really important thing. And listen, I'm like anybody else. I've been jealous when other people get an assignment or a job that I thought I was right for or that I was fighting for. I mean, you have those disappointments along the way, for sure. So I always think it's good to share with younger people, too. I always like to tell them about getting fired. Like, you can make it through that. But even if on the outside, you look super successful to the world, you're getting passed over for things or for interviews or assignments that you wish that you'd gotten too. So it's still. There's always a fight, you know, within the business, managing your ego along with your ambition. It's tricky.

[Shannon Bream]

I do think that there's an adage that I'm not. I'm going to screw up, so I'll just say it in my own words. But basically, you know, don't mistake my kindness for what?

[Unknown Guest]

Weakness.

[Shannon Bream]

Weakness. That was hard. Sage, good job. So true, though, with you. It's so true. Because I know that if push came to shove, no one's pushing Shannon Bream around. It might take a lot to get you to the point where you're gonna do this, right?

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah.

[Shannon Bream]

But there's some real toughness there that I feel like, especially if people glance at Fox News and you see some very strong personalities whose opinions are part of their show. It is. They are defined, actually. And I think you do an incredible job of not allowing your opinions to influence your questions and actually asking a question. Sometimes people don't even ask a question. Right. How have you managed that? Because you have the opinions, and now it's more okay to express it. That's not how it was back in the day. Strictly keep it separate now. That line has been Blurred.

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah. And I'm in the news division. I feel a real obligation for people to, like I said, get heat from both sides of people who are upset. They think you're this or they think you're that. And I love when people will send a tweet or a message because I really do tune out social media, but it's very easy to find our emails and send things to our email inboxes, too. I do feel like there's a lot of projection, but it does take a lot for me to get to a place where I'm really going to be pushed. And I feel like you can't lose it on air. You can't on tv. I've got to stay neutral. As part of the news division, we all have opinions. We have really strong opinions. But. But if people are unsure of where I am, I feel like I'm doing my job then. And I do have coworkers who I love or family who. Their opinion people. That's what they do. It's their bread and butter. They have millions of viewers, and I love that that's part of our Fox family. So that's not the part of the family I'm in. So I have to bite my tongue some. But I feel like when people come on the show or if I'm filling in on someone else's show, I want to ask questions that people at home would ask, like, why are you saying this? And then you're voting for this? I mean, I'll do that to Democrats or Republicans or independents or whoever. Because I feel like when you have people and there's just sort of a shouting match, nobody at home is getting anything out of that. I want to let people answer questions. And sometimes when you let them just answer the question, they trip themselves up. And I think that I've always been a person that you get more flies with honey kind of then. Gotcha. Questions beating people over the head with stuff. Let them talk.

[Shannon Bream]

Oh, and they give it to you. And then I can see it in your eyes sometimes because you know me, I'm like, oh, she got them. And then that smile, because you didn't have to. But the key is to set them up with that question and then to actually listen. I feel like so many journalists don't listen. And it's harder when you're younger. You feel the pressure and you have people in your ear and you know you have literally.

[Unknown Guest]

Literally.

[Shannon Bream]

I'm like, there's always voices in my head. What does that say about me? Even when I'm not On tv. Right. But you have your list. You have, you know, you have three and a half minutes for this interview. And it's a quick spur of the moment thing. Where do you follow up on what they said there? Or do you make sure you get this next question in? Because if you don't get that in, then it's gonna look like, oh, you let that one off the hook.

[Unknown Guest]

Right.

[Shannon Bream]

I mean, it's.

[Unknown Guest]

It's really tricky because some people really will get at you for not the following up. And so sometimes there's something really egregiously said, and I don't care if they're left, right, or center, but they say something factually is not correct. Okay, we're obviously going to have to follow up on that. But I know it's eating the time from the rest of my questions that I have. And so I start to mentally tick off. Like, we're not doing question six or seven. We're going to eight. That's going to be more newsy. Let's go there. So it is a little choreography that you're doing with yourself. And I have an amazing team, and so they're following, you know, and they can see where we're going. And they know the sound bites that I have and the material that I have. And so I try to give them a good lead. Like, I'm going to this full screen. I'm going to this bite. But, yeah, you're making decisions in real time about what you think will best serve the viewer and possibly make news and get something substantive out of the interview that was worth their time. They're kind enough to tune in and watch. We want to make it worth their time.

[Shannon Bream]

It's a split second decision, one that I'm sure you have, too. I have questioned a million times, like, I should have gone the other way. I should have stuck with it. I know.

[Unknown Guest]

I do it every Sunday.

[Shannon Bream]

Do you really?

[Unknown Guest]

Oh, almost every Sunday after the show. Like, oh, this could have really gotten to something. But, you know, you're getting the time cues. And to be fair to my team, they probably cheat me a little bit because they know that I'll go long and you go to the rest of the show. And it's all live, so it's all timed out. You can't just. Well, we had slated eight minutes for that guest and you went 12. Where is that four minutes coming from? Because now they're scrambling to fix the rest of the show. So there's always more you could have done and where you could have asked.

[Shannon Bream]

Well, which means you care. And when you stop questioning or evaluating how you did afterwards, then probably time to get out. But I do want to emphasize how difficult that is with your viewership, which is through the roof constantly to be editing on the fly and deciding. I'm going to leave out 5 and 6, but go to 7 and 8 while you're listening because so it's like.

[Unknown Guest]

It can get distracting. You know, you need to listen. But your brain is going to be.

[Shannon Bream]

Helpful in this way because this half can decide on what has to go and this half is still listening. But then if they say something while you're over here, it's why I'm crazy.

[Unknown Guest]

Maybe we all are in this business. I do and I always tell young people too that when they come through and they have questions about the business, I'm like, if you're easily bored, this is a good thing for you doing live television because there's just, you got to pivot, pivot constantly. Squirrel, Squirrel.

[Shannon Bream]

You know what was your toughest interview?

[Unknown Guest]

I'm trying to think. I've had things happen where it has gotten so heated that I've had people threaten to walk off or walk off early on one. This is one of my favorite stories. One of the times that early on at Fox they had asked me to fill in on one of the evening primetime shows is Greta Van Susteren, friend and co worker from years past. And I thought, oh, I don't know that I'm ready for this. But it was a holiday and you know, so you're not gonna say no. You're like, o, okay, this is a chance, I'm gonna do it. So I don't know if you remember this story. The Salahis was this couple that broke into a White House event, got past everyone, they were getting pictures. I mean they were a wealthy non threatening, they weren't there to hurt anybody. But they made it through all of the. They talked their way through Secret Service and everything else and got to. It was when President Obama was president and they'd gotten into this event and so that news had broken. So I'm filling in for Greta's show that night. It was a Thanksgiving week and we had booked. Rick Santorum was a senator then and Dennis Kucinich was a congressman then. So we had our D and R and reverse that. Santorum, the R, Kusin is the D. But we had them on to talk about Afghanistan and what was going on in that conflict at the time. So the producers say to me, like, oh my gosh, this thing breaking News. There's pictures, this couple at the White House, like, you were going to have to leave the show with that. It's something new. We're going to do that. So they're both remote. And I am still kind of at that level of doing, like, a primetime show. Was new to that. It was a little overwhelming to me. And so I start off and I go to Rick Santorum, like, okay, this couple. Look at these photos. They broke into this White House event. Like, what's your reaction? Like, how close they got to the president. I think there were pictures of them with then Vice President Biden and all kinds of stuff. And. And Rick says, gives his little answer, like, well, clearly, we need to find up and see what happened here. But I'm really concerned about what's going on in Afghanistan, and let's focus on that. And I'm like, okay, but the producers are saying in my ear, no, we need to get more on this breaking news. So I go to Mr. Kucinich, Congressman Kucinich at the time, and I'm like, congressman, are you also concerned? I mean, these people made it through every. You know how hard it is you've been to the White House. Like, there's stuff weeks in advance that you have to be giving, basically, like your fingerprints and your birth certificate and everything. I'm like, you know, and Congressman. And he's like, I'm gonna have to say, this is. Sometime I'm in agreement with Senator Santorum. Like, I think that this is a silly story. Nobody was hurt. Everything's fine. We need to. About Afghanistan. And the producers are saying, but you're like, no, we need to get some sound bites on this. We need to. And I'm thinking, like, oh, my gosh, I don't know what I'm doing. And so I went back to both of them and tried again. I went back to Kitich the second time, and he's like, young lady. Like, he probably has no idea who I am. And he's. Because I'm, you know, newer at Fox. And he says, I was booked on this show to talk about Afghanistan. There is a real crisis there. If we want to keep talking about these people at the White House, I'm leaving.

[Shannon Bream]

Oh, my goodness.

[Unknown Guest]

And they're in my ear, and they're like, you have six minutes left. So I'm like, oh, no. Rixie and Torum will not throw me a lifeline. I'm like, come on, Senator. And he was like, yeah, I agree. We just signed for us to move on. So it was super that was really hard because it was happening in real time, and I just wasn't sure where to go. That. That was a hard one.

[Shannon Bream]

I. My heart's racing for you right now.

[Unknown Guest]

It was so embarrassing. I thought, they're never gonna ask me to fill in on anything again. This is terrible.

[Shannon Bream]

But they're telling you, and you are respectful of your team, and they're smart people, and when they're saying. When they're pushing you to do it.

[Unknown Guest]

And I'm a visitor on their show, you know, like, I'm just kind of keeping the seat warm, so I'm trying to follow them. But it was a long six minutes. I was going to say six minutes ever. I did have someone walk off one time, but it was. It turned out to be pretty funny because Tom Lowell, who's one of our executives, one of the. The best producers I've ever worked with in my life, he was producing Megyn Kelly's show at the time at Fox, and I was filling in for her one day, and we had two people who were in separate studios, and they were really getting into it. Dnr. And it was like screaming and fighting. And finally one of them was like, I'm taking my mic off. I'm leaving. And he finally did it. So he gets up, he walks out in the middle of the segment. And Tom Lowell, I give him all the credit for this, but he got in someone's ear that was in that studio and said, go kick the chair. So they put the camera on it, and. And it's spinning around like, he's left. And it's, like, in such a hurry that he's leaving dust in his way. It was like such a funny TV moment. Like, he left in such a hurry that he leaves the seat spinning. And so I had to laugh at that. But, yeah, I've had people walk off. That's always hard.

[Shannon Bream]

I'm like, I don't. I think. I don't understand that reaction. You know, where, as a professional, can you imagine if we walked off.

[Unknown Guest]

I know. Like, done with this show.

[Shannon Bream]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean. And I guess depending on the timing, could go super viral if an anchor walked up. Let's try it, Shannon.

[Unknown Guest]

Well, I. You go first. I don't want it to be my last Sunday I've ever done Foxy Sunday. I will say this, too. And you've probably had this experience. I think, really the hardest interviews I've done have been with people who are in a place of tragedy.

[Shannon Bream]

Yeah.

[Unknown Guest]

You're showing up after a tornado or I had a situation when I was a local reporter, that I showed up to a house that the husband did not know yet the wife had been killed in a hit run accident. And that was a horrible situation. I think if you care about people and you have a heart, there are moments in the news business that are really hard. It's not necessarily the lawmaker you're fighting with, which that's its own challenge, but it's seeing someone's heart break in real time while you've got a mic in their face, that is brutal. Yeah, that's really hard.

[Shannon Bream]

I showed up to a home in South Bend, my very first TV job. Again, I was like, I want to do sports. I don't want to do any of this stuff. But it was an opportunity, and it was a murder suicide. And it was an older couple. And my new instructor was like, you need to go knock on the door and ask for. Maybe someone answers and they can give us a picture. I'm like, so you want me to go knock on someone's door after this unimaginable tragedy and get a picture of them? And I got in the van with the photographer, and those photographers take us under their wings, don't they? And I was almost in tears. I was like, I can't do this. And he looked at me, he's like, do you want to be in this business or not? Go knock on the door.

[Unknown Guest]

That's part of it.

[Shannon Bream]

I remember I knocked on the door, and the woman that opened it was the daughter. His parents were now gone. And it's funny, I had been doing a story on a high school band, and she was like one of the leaders of the band, like the marching band. And so I'd done a fun feature on her like a week before. And I knock on the door and she answers. But I remember making a decision in that moment. And we've all had these decisions to make. I reintroduced myself and she just hugged me, and I hugged her. And my cameraman was there. And I just said, I'm so sorry. You know, I'm. I'm told to. And she's like, oh, come on in. And we started chatting, and I never asked for the picture again. We just talked and hugged and I left. And I lied and told the news director that no one answered because I didn't want to admit that I did. I was not willing to ask them at that moment because the humanity in us, that's more important than getting the story sometimes. But when you're young and you're taking orders to keep pressing sand Torram, right? You like.

[Unknown Guest]

Or you're sent to, like, a crazy, dangerous neighborhood to knock on a door after a shooting, to ask for, interview a neighbor, that kind of thing. Like, it's. You are a little bit crazy. But that's. That's the hardest part, I think, in the business is watching people who are hurting and being there in that moment of just the raw emotion of loss and of heartbreak. It's really hard.

[Shannon Bream]

I wonder if that the seriousness and the immediacy and all the pressure that you have there every single day for all these years, how much is that balanced with what you've chosen to do on the side? On the side as a Christian, strong Christian woman, as an authority, and helping so many women find their faith, stay with it, and have a fellowship with others through that. I mean, is that fair? I mean, it's the first time I've thought about it that way. Or maybe that helps with the ugliness. To be able to talk about what keeps you going with your faith 100%.

[Unknown Guest]

I don't know how people and everybody manages their life in a different way. For me, I don't know how I would do it without the faith part of it. Like, there is a bigger thing going on that doesn't. I'm not in charge. Luckily, God's running the universe, not me. He doesn't need my help, but I love when I get to be a messenger for what he wants people to know, which is a hopeful, joyful message of the gospel and of faith. And so when Fox came to me a few years ago and said, hey, we're thinking about doing a book thing, and we were thinking about doing something with women and with faith. And we know this is really important to you. Would you be one of our first authors? And normally I'd be like, oh, I need to think about this immediately. Yes, absolutely. And it was during COVID that I wrote the first book in the series of the three Bible books that I did. And I knew these stories from growing up in church and Christian school and all of that, but what a blessing it was to me. I was like, I hope this blesses other people when they get this book. But, man, to be in a time that was so fearful and so depressing and so much loss for so many people all over the whole world that we're all living this tragic, horrible thing in real time. To read these stories of women who, over the years, we're dealing with things that are very now, I mean, broken families, financial disaster, health crises, infertility, all of these Things that I'm like, he was always working and weaving in these stories and the same things we struggle with now, these women struggle with. The Bible is not some remote, dusty old book that doesn't have anything for us today. I think he included every one of those stories because he knew they would meet somebody where they were who needed that specific bit of encouragement. And I found too, that most people didn't realize there were so many women stories throughout the Bible. I knew that having grown up in the faith, but that's one of the things I found with that first book is that people are like, I had no idea. All through the old New Testament, there were these women who God really spotlighted them in their stories and they had a big role to play. They weren't these bit part characters that didn't have a name or a face or a story. So. So it's just such a blessing to me to get to tell their stories to people who might not have found them otherwise.

[Shannon Bream]

Oh yeah. And what's the name of it again?

[Unknown Guest]

First one was Women of the Bible Speak.

[Shannon Bream]

Women of the Bible Speak, yes. And that, I mean, that's a bestseller, right? Yeah, like number one New York Times. That's insane.

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah, it is. Our. I attribute our viewers, I mean, they showed up for that book and for the two that followed it too. I mean, there was just. And I think I found. I don't know if you felt this or remember this, but during COVID people were really searching. Like, I would do my show every night and we'd started having pastors on, we'd have doctors on and we'd go for hours. It was a one hour show, but some nights they were just like, we're gonna give you two or three hours and we're gonna take calls and we're gonna figure out, answer people's questions, like, what do we know? Because there's so much we didn't know. We'd have pastors on and just like, how do you encourage people that are losing everything and that are so fearful? We started having people come on and tell their verse of the night. And I'm like, until somebody tells me to stop doing this, we're not gonna stop doing it. Nobody ever said anything about it. You know, within Fox, they were all like, do your thing. This is encouraging people. It's helping.

[Shannon Bream]

Wow.

[Unknown Guest]

And that book, I think was just really. People were open to it. They were really searching. And so that book just landed hopefully in a place that they needed it at that time.

[Shannon Bream]

You were nice enough to send a Couple to my mom at the workshop. Yes.

[Unknown Guest]

She was having a Bible study group.

[Shannon Bream]

She was. Which in her early 70s to.

[Unknown Guest]

Really.

[Shannon Bream]

That's the first time I remember her, I want to say publicly, but outside of the church or our home, talking about her faith and so you moved Mona Steele. You moved a lot of people with that, I'm sure. I know you hear that a lot from women, right?

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah, I do.

[Shannon Bream]

What does that do for you?

[Unknown Guest]

It makes me cry, honestly. There's. There. I. One of them really got me. There was a woman who I think might have been my second or third book. I can't remember what it was, but she put out a tweet and tagged me in it back when I was still reading social media. And it was of her getting baptized. And she said in this tweet something like, my whole life was destroyed and ruined, and the only reason that I found God and get back on track is like, Shannon Bream's book and I'm getting baptized today. And I was like. Like in tears over that because that's. I mean, if nothing else ever happens in my career, that somebody found hope and found the Lord through a book that Fox let me write and then our viewers so supported. I was like, this one tweet is worth everything I've ever done.

[Shannon Bream]

Oh, yeah.

[Unknown Guest]

To see her life in a place where she had hope and she'd found faith. And so I always get really messy when people will say to me that their book meant a certain thing or helped them through a certain thing, because it's like, I'm just the messenger.

[Shannon Bream]

Yeah.

[Unknown Guest]

And I'm so thankful that I could be there.

[Shannon Bream]

Do you ever say, what if? Like, what. But what if you hadn't pushed through? What if you had listened to that nasty person in Tampa. I know. Or the women along the way? The competitiveness. Any of it. What if you'd listen to those fears? Like, you would never have been there for that one woman, much less probably millions of others.

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah. What a blessing. It's such a humongous blessing. Again, that is so far beyond me. And I just feel like the times that I was getting no. In my career or places that were so hard for me to understand at the time that I just felt like I was grinding or on autopilot or couldn't break through. I mean, it took me years to get anyone at Fox to look at my stuff, but there was all purpose in it. Like, I was learning. I was maturing. I was learning what adversity was like in my personal life, in My professional life. And so it all weaves into this place where you're supposed to end up so that you are more empathetic and able to serve other people, understand their trials better. And so, yeah, I mean, I really. Even the hard things that I've been through, I wouldn't change anything.

[Shannon Bream]

Yeah, that's cool, isn't it? When you realize that, yeah, that hurt and it wasn't fun. And you would you hope that others don't have to go through the same thing and you wouldn't change.

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah, the.

[Shannon Bream]

I'm sure knowing you and even just from today, like your faith, your family, getting through the. Some of the health issues that you've had, which you've been pretty open about. I'm not going to get the name right.

[Unknown Guest]

Don't worry. Because I never get it right either. I don't. This is big, long, technical name for this cornea disease I have. It's a genetic condition. Map dot fingerprint dystrophy is one of the names it goes under. But when I was in the middle of the worst of that, I wasn't transparent with it because it took me a couple years to get a diagnosis. And I was living many days in a 10 out of 10 with pain. And so we all have known somebody probably that's lived with some measure of chronic pain. It just takes you to a really, really, really dark place. And so after I finally was coming to the other side of that, it was a little scary. But I felt like it was important to be transparent about how bad that had gotten for me because again, I'm thinking if you don't share that, there's not a place to encourage somebody else.

[Shannon Bream]

You know, what were you feeling? What exactly is this?

[Unknown Guest]

So I started overnight. I sat up in bed one night and felt like if you've ever scratched your eye, had some injury to your eye, it was really painful, but I had just been sleeping. I was like, I can't figure out what happened. Did I rub something or do something? Dug through the cabinets in the bathroom, eye drops, trying to do anything to get this pain, which was a 10 out of 10. It finally cleared down. I had double vision for a couple of days with that first incident, which, you know, triggers headaches and all kinds of weird stuff. And I was like, that was really weird. And within weeks it was happening again. And then it was both eyes. And so I went to my regular doctor that I use for contacts and whatever, because I was one of these kids that third grade, I had glasses, you know, it was like I always had questionable eyes. And so he said to me, like, huh, I think you maybe have dry eye. It was around my 40th birthday. And he's like, women, when they get around this age, a lot of them start dealing with hormonal changes and dry eye and whatever. And I was like, okay, well, tried all kinds of different eye drops. It was getting worse and worse to where I was having these episodes many nights. And so he finally said to me, like, I really. Let's get you to a specialist. I can't. This isn't my garden variety kind of thing. So I looked, you know, everybody has these magazines, like Best of Nashville, Best of Washington, whatever. And I found this doctor that was supposed to be really great. And I went to see him and he talked me through some ideas and gave me some, you know, ointments and medications and let's try this, try that. And within months, I was in a really bad place because you can't, you know, if you go to sleep, it's like Freddy Krueger. Like, something is going to get you. Like, you couldn't. I could never sleep through the night. There would be. And I tried to set alarms so I could get ahead of it with drops or do something to, you know, keep my eyes lubricated and do whatever I could. But. So you're never sleeping more than two or three hours of time. And, man, if I slept through that alarm, I paid for it because I was going to. To have this pain.

[Shannon Bream]

Wow.

[Unknown Guest]

And I'm hiding it from everybody at work. I'm in pain all the time now. I finally go back to this doctor, and I'm really losing it because I'm thinking my life is sort of spinning out of control here. And I said to him, I tried to explain to him exactly what was going on and how I wasn't sleeping at all. And so that compounded with a pain. I was very depressed and I was really having a hard time. And he said to me, you're very emotional. Oh, I'm like, yeah, I am very emotional. And he's like, yeah, I don't. I just don't think that this is. You just need to give it a time and just like kind of calm down sort of thing. And I. I always describe it as I'd gone there, needing a life preserver, like, I'm drowning out here. And it's like you throw me an anchor. I just plummeted. And I thought, okay, this guy is one of the best of the best specialists. I'm now several months into this and my life is not worth living. I can't sleep. I can't get through the night. I can't tell anybody. I have no diagnosis for this. Sheldon was the only person who had any clue. I didn't tell my family, and I'm hiding at work because I don't want to get sidelined like, you can't handle what we're doing here, you know, it was a demanding job, and I just got into a really tough place. And I thought, medical community is not going to help me. I stopped going to the doctor. I did not want to go back and be humiliated by him again. When I left there, I said, I'm never coming back here. And so I was just living with this situation where there were times I would, you know, lay in the bathroom floor, and I couldn't even put anything together other than God, please help me. There was no flowery prayer. It was just like, God, please help me. God, please help me. It would just be a mantra like, please just get me through this. So I was living in chronic pain all the time. It got to the point where I took eye drops everywhere workout from machine to machine. If I had the strength to work out, I would have my eye drops. Every machine. I took eye drops in the shower. That's how bad it was. Like, water to my eyes was painful. It's just crazy. So I had gotten really despondent, and I'm searching online, which is not a great thing to do when you have a medical problem. But I was just looking for the vocabulary to even explain what I had to maybe figure out what this was. And I stumbled into, like, a message chat room kind of with people with really severe eye problems. And they're all saying the same thing. I go to the emergency room, they turn me away. They tell me that I'm crazy. Like, okay, well, these people understand whatever it is that I have. Maybe this, this. And there were people on the message board talking about just wanting to take their lives. And I thought, that sounds like a relief. Honestly, I just thought, I'm 40ish now, early 40s, and thinking, there's no way I can live like this for 40 more years. Like, there were times I couldn't make it 40 seconds. I. My life felt completely pointless. There was nothing I looked forward to. There's no joy anywhere. Like, your world just goes to black and white. There's no meal you want to eat. There's no joke. That's funny. You're just surviving. And that was it. And so I went to Shell, and he knew how bad it was, but to tell him, like, you know, I'd really just like to go to sleep and not ever wake up again. And I felt like God understood how bad things were. Like, nobody knew but him and Shell. And I thought, you know, he'd just forgive me if I just went to sleep, wake up in heaven. Like, how much better would that be? I can't. There's no point to this. Like, there's literally no point to my existence at this point. And so he and I talked and prayed, and he was like, listen, I don't care if we have to spend every dime we have. I don't care if you find a doctor that's on our insurance or not. Like, we've got to find a solution to this. You've got to give medicine another chance. So we literally prayed. And I. You know, there's a story in the New Testament where Paul has got this thorn in his side, and he asks God three times to take it from him. We don't know what it is. There's this theological debate. Some people think it was an eye problem. There's a thing, another New Testament book where Paul talks about having an eye problem. And I'm like, how crazy would that be? But I remember just praying that. And there were these verses in Second Corinthians where he says he begged God three times, please take this from me. And God said to him, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in your weakness. And so Paul went on to say, therefore I will be boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power rests on me. And I lived by those verses, like, that's the only way I'm surviving this. And so I started praying. Instead of for miraculous healing, God sent me someone. If you could just get me to the right doctor, if you can give me someone to walk me through this. And I pray, let me make it through tonight. Tomorrow we will start over. I will start calling. I'll figure this out. So the next day, I found again. I'm searching for specialists and doctors. I find this doctor. He's supposed to be the best of the best. Booked up, doesn't really take new patients. But I called and I thought, I've been praying. I got the Lord on my side. Now I'm going to call. But I remember saying to myself, keep it together. Do not show emotion to this person. Like, you're a crazy person. So I call, and I'm like, I'm calling about this Dr. Thomas Clinch. I've had this thing that nobody can figure out. Having a really tough time. I've heard he's the best of the best. And she said, can I put you on hold for a second? And I was like, sure. Okay. Kept it together. She comes back and she says, I literally just had somebody cancel for tomorrow. Can you come tomorrow? And I'm like, yes, I will be there tomorrow. And I thought to myself, just make it through tonight. Make it through one more night.

[Shannon Bream]

Oh, my gosh.

[Unknown Guest]

And I was filling in for Brett Baer the next day for his six o' clock show. And so I left in the middle of the day to go to this doctor appointment. And. And the PA saw me before the doctor came in, wrote up my chart, and I could hear the doctor pick it up. You know, we hear them on the door outside. They come in. And he walked in and sat down, hadn't examined me. And he's like, I know what you have. I'm 95% sure I know what you have. And I'm like, I feel like I've won the lottery. It is the first moment of hope in almost two years of this. It felt like. I mean, this little. I had given up on this. I didn't even remember this feeling, like. Like this feeling of hope. And so I sat there and he's like, let me examine you. And he says, yep, this is what you have. And we talked through it, and I was like, joyful. Like, somebody gives me a name and he's gonna be able to help me. So we're talking, talking, talking. He's like, these are the things we'll start with. And then he says to me, as we're wrapping up the appointment, you need to know something, that there's no cure for this. And I was immediately back just in the darkest pit. I don't even remember leaving the office. I remember Sheldon was waiting on me to call him. And I remember I had to get back to work because I was doing Brett's show, and I just wanted to get in the car. And I was like, I could drive this car off a bridge. I just. How could you lead me here to this person that can help me? But then he says to me, there's no cure for this. And so I'm sobbing, sobbing, sobbing through this. And I know I need to call Shell. I know he's worried, and. And I'm praying and just crying like, how could you leave me here? How can you bring me to this place? And I always say that I heard God's voice, not like I heard it out loud, but I felt it of him saying to me, I will be with you, not I'm gonna miraculously heal you. Which is what the prayer answered. I would have wanted, sure. But without a doubt, I heard in my spirit him say to me, I will be with you. And that was enough, you know, so to get me back to that doctor's office.

[Shannon Bream]

You're in the car at that moment when. When you heard it. Oh, my gosh.

[Unknown Guest]

And I had to call Shell. I'm sure he probably thought I was crazy person sobbing, you know, but was able to tell him, all right, this doctor knows what I have. But he's telling me there's. They've never found a cure for it. I've got this genetic cornea condition my mom's adopted, so we know nothing past her. And so we think it's on that side, but we don't know. So I, apparently, in running out of the office, had been of enough mind to make an appointment, because I did go back, you know, for the follow up eventually. And he said to me, there are ways we can manage this. There's a surgery that doesn't always work super painful, but you'll know when you're ready to try it if everything else we try doesn't get you there. And so it was years of managing it, but the first time I slept through the night, I literally felt like a different human being. It was like, there's hope. You are going to get your life back. And it was years and years and years before I was still in such a difficult place that we went ahead with the surgery, and I had had a really tough time and a lot of complications, but now I'm on the other side of that, and I'm very thankful.

[Shannon Bream]

Is it something that I would have been able to see, which makes it even tougher? It's one thing if you have a certain kind of cancer and chemo and your hair is gone or cast on.

[Unknown Guest]

Your arm or whatever, people can see.

[Shannon Bream]

It that's tangible that you can see, but. And then you have the most beautiful eyes, too. So it's like, what's the problem?

[Unknown Guest]

They don't work really well. But how were you.

[Shannon Bream]

How did you stay on the air?

[Unknown Guest]

How really hard. And there were times, even after I had my surgery, most patients within two to three weeks, they can correct your vision when they also do the. The cornea procedure. So I was like, great. I've been wearing glasses and contacts my whole life. So there's going to be a vision correction along with doing what they can to the corneas. They damage the corneas to the extent that I don't want to. Some people get grossed out. I don't know if you get grossed out. I want to explain it. They literally use acid to, to burn off the surface of your eyeball. The hope is that when the cornea regrows, it's much stronger and correct some of what you have. Sheldon actually watched the surgery. No, because the doctor's like, you can watch it from another room. So he did. He likes surgeries and all that kind of stuff. So he's the tough, non squeamish one in this relationship. But I wasn't healing. I was going in for my checkups and I wasn't. My vision wasn't coming back. So that was really hard because I went back to work and I couldn't read the prompter.

[Shannon Bream]

That's what I'm saying.

[Unknown Guest]

They literally put the prompter on the desk, like to the desk.

[Shannon Bream]

So you had to share some with them at some point when that was.

[Unknown Guest]

Really hard to try to hide that one of the. I can laugh about it now. But President Trump, so it was his first term, he was president, he was over in Hawaii visiting, you know, Pearl harbor and all these things. And because I was doing a Late Night Show, 11pm at that time, it was in real time when he was in Hawaii that I picked it up, that we were doing it air live on Air at 11pm because it was a daytime event for him in Hawaii. And so normally, you know, if you're doing sports or whatever, you're narrating what you're seeing.

[Shannon Bream]

Sure.

[Unknown Guest]

You know, so you're like, oh, and now he's taking the wreath and he's placing it here, whatever. I couldn't see anything.

[Shannon Bream]

Oh my gosh.

[Unknown Guest]

I couldn't see anything. And that's kind of when I was busted. But luckily my good friend and. And co worker Martha McCallum was there in Hawaii and had been doing some coverage. And I just had to toss it to her because I was like, I can't see.

[Shannon Bream]

And did she know what was going on?

[Unknown Guest]

She did not know. But luckily she's like the best of the best. I was like, martha, why don't you pick it up from there since you're on site and tell us what you're seeing, like. And so she was able to narrate that whole thing. But I had some moments like that that I was like, I'm not sure when my vision's coming back, if ever. And it eventually did. But it just took me so much longer than the normal healing process.

[Shannon Bream]

And so I'm blown away.

[Unknown Guest]

It was crazy. I quit. I went into a bit of a shell with that because the pain. The surgery was so incredibly painful. There were not words for it. I'm glad. I did not realize how bad it was going to be. But then to not get my vision back, I stopped running, I stopped going. I couldn't see people on the trail. I felt very vulnerable, that I couldn't. I mean, I could see blobs and things, but there's no driving. I couldn't read my phone. It was like, really difficult to do anything.

[Shannon Bream]

Everyday life. So there's no cure, but how do you manage it now?

[Unknown Guest]

So eventually it was probably three months into it that my vision really started to come back. And once it did, it really kicked in and so great. I wear glasses sometimes when I need to, but 95% of the time, I can sleep at night and I'm not having these tears. The problem was with a genetic condition, your cornea. Doesn't the cells root back into your eyeballs? Kind of hold everything together, but. But mine didn't root back. So they were constantly tearing off. So if you've ever scratched a cornea, I was just doing that every day. And the tears would just get deeper and deeper because I wasn't getting healed. So once I got to this doctor who knew what it was, he was able to help me figure that out. So I have a whole protocol at night that I do for my eyeballs to get through the night, and it works. So the surgery was ultimately very successful.

[Shannon Bream]

Did you have cancer?

[Unknown Guest]

I did not. I've had two. Two surgeries. Two breast surgeries for early, early, early, early, like baby stage things that have been found. So I've never been too far down that path. And I haven't talked a ton about that, but I would, if you want to talk about it.

[Shannon Bream]

I wasn't sure. I saw a blurb about it and thought, well, I. I haven't heard about this because I knew the generic version of what happened with your eye, which you were thinking about ending your life with something that difficult. So I. I was shocked to hear that There was more, I guess.

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah, you're.

[Shannon Bream]

You're okay now.

[Unknown Guest]

When was that? So I, back in 2015, had a bad mammogram, and it was just something I. Unexpected. You get your checkups all the time. You think you're fine. There was something there. So I was sent for a biopsy. And for any woman who's Going through this out there, that's the toughest part. It is very difficult, and they have improved the technology a lot. But the biopsy tends to be worse than the actual physical surgery because you're out for that now. Recovery is a totally different situation based on what happens with your case. The biopsy was terrifying, and it was really difficult. But then you wait. And I remember thinking, there's got to be a better way to do this when they call you with your results, because it was like, you got to answer your phone 247 in case it's the lab or the doctor calling you. And I was going over to a lunch with Justice Breyer when he was still on the bench. He would host these great lunches at the end of the Supreme Court term. And I was walking out the door to that, and I got the call from the number that I knew was probably the doctor's office saying, we found something, and you're going to have to have surgery. When you come in and you have time to talk about, we can explain more fully what this is. It's very early stage, but you're going to have to have surgery. So I literally was walking down the street in D.C. crying, thinking, I got to pull myself together before I get to this lunch with Justice Breyer. And it just seemed like, man, there's got to be a better way to manage this for women, because women get those phone calls every day. I had a great surgeon. She got clean margins, and that was great. And I thought that was the end of that. But she said, you've got a predisposition. We're gonna have to watch. The crazy thing is, when I went into my surgery 2015, I was laying there and it was delayed. And you're all prepped for surgery and you're waiting. They had a. The local AM news station playing in the background. And it was the day that Donald Trump was going down the elevator at Trump Tower to make some big announcement. And I'd interview interviewed him a few weeks before that. And I. He'd said to me afterwards, I don't think you're taking me seriously. Like, when we took our mics off and stuff, I said, well, many times we thought, you're running for president, but you have so much going with Trump Industries and all these things. I'm not sure that you really mean it. You know, I don't doubt your intentions, but I feel like I'm not sure that you're really going to run this time because you would have to step away from so much. It would be a total upheaval of your life. And what he had said to me in the interview is, if I think I'm the person that has to do it to get elected and save this country. Whether you like his politics or not, he really was coming from this place of like, I will do it. I will turn my whole life upside down if I think I can serve this country. So whether you like the way he does that or not, I think he genuinely comes from that place. So I'm laying there going into surgery, and, you know, if you've been under anesthesia when you come out, I'm always afraid I'm going to say something crazy because it's like a truth serum. Totally. And I remember laying there and saying to the nurses, like, I had this dream when I was in my surgery that Donald Trump said he's going to run for president. And they're like, oh, that happened. While you were under. He came down the escalator. While you were under, we came down the escalator and said that he was running. So that's what I always associate with the first surgery. So fast forward many years, I'm on a real special regimen where every six months I do either mammogram or an MRI because of my history. And so I had a time last year where they found something again and I was like, I don't want to do this again. It's really a tough road to walk, you know, and mine was so minor compared to people that have had a much more advanced, crazy serious case. I've had two different, very early baby stage findings that had to go. And so, yeah, so last year I thought, well, I've done this before. It was 10 years ago. I know what I'm doing. It was much tougher this time. It was a much bigger, more invasive surgery and I probably should have taken a little more time off, but I went right back to work because I thought, you know, it's 24, it's an election year, I don't want to miss anything. And it was harder to hide this time around. I just, I'm physically 10 years older and it was a much more involved surgery, but again, clean and fine. And so I'm really grateful. I mean, I have a lot of loved ones and co workers and friends and people who've had a much tougher road with that. And so I don't. It's not that I've been hesitant to share it. I just know people have had a much worse experience. So I've got some scars But I'm healthy, you know, and I'm fine. And I'm just an advocate for, you know, mammogram is not bad. Whatever you thought would be difficult. Like, it's really not. If you go to the T, if you get your dentist, you get your teeth cleaned, you get. Get. You can do a mammogram. And I've been really fortunate that both times it's been spotted very early, and that makes all the difference. So I will always have sort of, you know, looking over my shoulder a little bit, given my history. But every six months, I get that check that tells me whether it's time for another biopsy or not. And, you know, there are always other options down the road about whether you are really proactive about mastectomies and those kinds of things. But so far, I haven't been faced with that choice. So I've had two really good surgeons and two really good outcomes.

[Shannon Bream]

Is it something between so three real pretty serious instances, then obviously the most serious with your eyes. How does that not change you or your perspective? So when you look back over the last decade, how has it changed you?

[Unknown Guest]

Makes you so much more empathetic, I feel like, because I can remember times it was literally on the treadmill thinking, I'm just gonna lose it. And this person next to me has no idea what I'm living with right now. What is that person living with? You know, maybe they're about to lose it on the treadmill. I think it just makes you much more empathetic. And if you kind of have a soft heart, it really just digs that in. Like, you can just feel for people and have much more grace because you know how much you've been given. And so I think my illnesses have made me much more. More empathetic, I hope. And so that's the good from it.

[Shannon Bream]

Yeah. And that's a choice to always find the good. It's in there. Sometimes it's not fun having to. Like when you are physically unable to live normally, it's kind of hard to dig and find that good. But I agree with you. And every single person doesn't matter how perfect their life looks, they got something. I don't you think that, like, if we lead with that everywhere at the airport, places that aren't always friendly, wherever it might be. I mean, it sounds so cheesy, but this world would be a better place if we just think that anger. They just cut me off in traffic. That was actually wasn't directed at me. What are they going through? I say to my kids, it isn't necessarily an excuse for bad behavior, but it might be a reason. We just don't know what it is.

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah.

[Shannon Bream]

It does take courage to share it, though. All of it. And I can see you keeping it all just to you and Sheldon, because that's how you are. You don't want anybody else to worry. But thank you for sharing all of it. I. I can't imagine. I have never dealt with, really.

[Unknown Guest]

You are a tough cookie, my friend.

[Shannon Bream]

No, but I'm. I mean, health and things that you can't control. I can. I can keep my mouth shut and probably control some things a little better. I'm sorry. I'm getting better.

[Unknown Guest]

Please don't stop it.

[Shannon Bream]

But the health part, that is something. And so, I don't know. I mean, faith must be the only way to get through it.

[Unknown Guest]

It is for me. And it's just such a relief because even I've got friends fighting through horrible things now. Cancer and that kind of thing. And one of a longtime friend of ours who's really been, gosh, a struggle, she posted something on Facebook when I was checking on her. I don't, you know, you don't always want to bug somebody, like, with a constant update, but she's really good about updating updates there. So we're not all calling and saying, like, how was her scan today? Kind of thing. And she's kind of a friend that, you know, we've had over the years. And she posted something where she was, like, really sad. She's got four kids. They're all adults now, but she's like, I don't want to die. I want to live and see their lives and see my grandbabies and whatever. I don't want to die. And she really. She's a strong believer, and she said, I was praying and saying, like, lord, I don't want to die. And she said, I came to this realization. He's like, you're not going to. Like, no matter what happens, you will be with me in heaven. You are safe for eternity. So when you're praying and saying, please don't let me die, he's like, you're not going to. And that perspective shift with her was really powerful, and it was to me, and I'm sure everyone who read that post from her, too.

[Shannon Bream]

Are you gonna keep writing books? You keep doing this for us?

[Unknown Guest]

I am. I am. There's another one I hope will be out in 26, and you need to.

[Shannon Bream]

Make sure that's out in 26. There's a long line of people.

[Unknown Guest]

I'll send you gu.

[Shannon Bream]

Yeah, that would be amazing. I just hope that you know how. Why do I cry when I look at you? You're gonna make me cry too. But you've done it the hard way and you've done it with kindness and strength and all the things that are missing from so many people. So I just. For all these years I've been cheering and just so proud of you for never losing that right. And we can say Rema for when I know you know, like you. You are. No one is better at their job and more kind and open. So thank you.

[Unknown Guest]

Thank you. You know I'm your biggest fan and over the years, like anytime something is coming for a stage, I'm like, no, they're not.

[Shannon Bream]

Oh, don't go now.

[Unknown Guest]

I message now. I need you in the foxhole with me. Like I know, like if anything really goes wrong, I've got Sage there too. So.

[Shannon Bream]

But. But by leading with faith, honestly, it's so inspiring from those days as a pageant girl in front of me.

[Unknown Guest]

Everything we've been through in the meantime.

[Shannon Bream]

All the way through. But thank you. And you're lucky. We didn't even get to talk about Biscuit Bream.

[Unknown Guest]

Next time the world is not ready. She's somewhere on my pants. Biscuit Bream is with me at all times.

[Shannon Bream]

That is a pet. Guys, let's clarify.

[Unknown Guest]

Yes, she is our 6 year old lab and you know she. You can't walk by her without being covered in her love.

[Shannon Bream]

So we'll call it God bless you, Shannon Bream. Thank you for being you.

[Unknown Guest]

I love you, my friend.

[Shannon Bream]

Love you. Love you. Cut. Before my mascara runs again. It's her fault. Thank you.