Television writer Molly McNearney, wife of late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, said the US is in a âfragile time for freedomâ following her husbandâs brief suspension.
McNearney was the keynote speaker at The Hollywood Reporterâs Women in Entertainment 2025 breakfast gala Wednesday, where she described Kimmelâs suspension as a moment she realized she had taken freedom of speech for granted.
âIâve been asked to speak about freedom of speech and, I have to be honest, I naively assumed it was a guarantee in this country until Sept. 16, 2025,â McNearney said.
âItâs something that I took for granted. Something I thought Iâd always have, like my period. Did you guys know that those just stop? They just stop.
âAnd it turns out your freedom in this country can too. We experienced it most recently in 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and we got another taste of it two months ago. I watched a show, co-workers, friends and the man I love be put on âindefinite suspensionâ after our thin-skinned president asked for his removal and his FCC chair publicly threatened the company we work for. It is a fragile time for freedom.â
Fox News Digital reached out to the Federal Communications Commission and the White House for comment.



Kimmelâs show was briefly suspended by ABC and parent company Disney in September after he accused conservatives of reaching ânew lowsâ in trying to pin a left-wing ideology on Charlie Kirkâs alleged assassin Tyler Robinson, even though prosecutors reaffirmed those ties in an earlier indictment.
âWe hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,â Kimmel said.
Kimmelâs show returned less than one week later after backlash from liberal commentators and celebrities.
McNearney described last month on the âWe Can Do Hard Thingsâ podcast how she felt âangry all the timeâ toward family members who voted for President Donald Trump after what happened to her husband.
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âIt hurts me so much because of the personal relationship I now have, where my husband is out there fighting this man, and, to me, them voting for Trump is them not voting for my husband and me and our family. And I unfortunately have kind of lost relationships with people in my family because of it,â McNearney said.
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