Fox News Meteorologist Janice Dean Feared Her Career Was Over Due to Her MS Diagnosis

For over two decades, Fox News viewers have looked to meteorologist Janice Dean to deliver the morning weather forecasts on Fox and Friends and FOX Weather. Janice's weather reports earned her the nickname "Janice Dean the Weather Machine" among her fanbase. However, her journey to becoming an established voice as a meteorologist on one of the most-watched news stations in the country didn't happen without challenges in Janice's personal life.

Throughout her career, Janice has been candid about her health issues, which appeared around the same time as her Fox News debut. Here's what to know about the reporter's challenges and how she refused to let them keep her down.

Janice's health started to shift during a significant highlight in her career. As she explained in an interview with People, in 2005, she had received an offer to join Fox News as a meteorologist, was 35, and was in a relationship with a man she loved. However, she couldn't shake a wave of fatigue she was experiencing, something she initially thought was due to working long hours covering Hurricanes Dennis, Emily, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, according to Brain and Life.org.

"I just kind of chalked it up to working too much, not taking care of myself, that kind of thing,” she admitted to People.

By October 2005, Janice was still experiencing fatigue when she and her boyfriend-turned-husband, Sean Newman, went to Ottawa so she could introduce him to her parents. It was there that she experienced both fatigue and pain.

“I woke up one morning and literally couldn’t get out of bed,” she recalled. “It was like nothing I had ever felt before. Like I had this weighted blanket on me. I couldn’t feel the bottoms of my feet, and I also had this weird numbness in my thighs. I was like, ‘What is wrong with me?’"

Janice then underwent a series of tests, including an MRI and a spinal tap. The results concluded that she had multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that affects at least 1 million Americans and it is most commonly diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, and that two to three times more women than men are diagnosed with the disease.

"I had lesions on both my brain and spine," Janice explained to Brain and Life. "The spinal tap fluid also showed the protein they look for in MS patients."

Janice's MS diagnosis wasn't something she was prepared to handle. The meteorologist said receiving the news officially changed her life and made her question her longevity in her career.

“It was the shock of a lifetime,” she stated to People. “I remember just feeling all of it was going to end: that my boyfriend was going to leave me, that I would be in a wheelchair, and I wouldn’t be able to do my job at Fox. All of my dreams kind of came crashing down.”

Thankfully, Janice's illness didn't deter her from making her dreams come true. In 2007, she married Sean, and the couple have two children: Matthew and Theodore. Janice also celebrated 20 years at Fox in 2025.

"I’m still standing,” she declared. “Better than standing. And I sometimes think I’m a better person because of the diagnosis, if that makes any sense. This made me realize what was important in life, like your health and your family and your support system.”