Jeanine Pirro Denies Being Drunk on an Episode of Her Show but What Was Her Hair Doing?
Like all of us, Jeanine Pirro was going through it.
Published May 10 2025, 2:57 p.m. ET
Most, if not all, of us would like to forget the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when we thought a quarantine might last a few short weeks. Although the United States did not go on as strict a lockdown as places like New Zealand or the United Kingdom, much of the country was shut down for the better part of a year before a vaccine was made widely available in May 2021.
In order to cope with being in quarantine for months on end, people found new hobbies like baking bread or working out. The rise of Zoom led to digital hangout sessions with friends where creativity made the isolation a bit more bearable.
The media pivoted to at-home broadcasts, which was equal parts entertaining and strange. There were a lot of weird moments in those days, including one from Fox News's Jeanine Pirro, who appeared to be drunk during an episode of her show. Hey, we get it.
The Jeanine Pirro alleged drunk episode is one for the books.
On March 13, 2020, President Trump declared the COVID-19 pandemic to be a national emergency. Roughly two weeks later, Jeanine recorded her first at-home broadcast of Justice with Judge Jeanine. As mentioned, things were complicated in those days though we were barely into the quarantine when the former judge dropped a meandering, disheveled version of her usually tight show.
Her normally perfectly coiffed hair was sticking up on one side as Jeanine leaned back in her chair, squinting at the camera. She was discussing the president's plan to perhaps "restart the economy" in time for an upcoming holiday.
"Just the other … day the president talked, or was hoping, about the possibility of reopening everything on Easter Sunday, uh, in a way where we could kind of come out of this quarantine, as loose as it may be, that we’re involved in," she said, slurring slightly.
In one clip from the episode shared to X, Jeanine is heard saying, "I can't," as the show returns from a commercial break. To her left is a cup with a straw in it, which prompted many to speculate that it was actually filled with alcohol. People had a field day in the replies, which were filled with GIFs galore.
Our favorite is one from the "Vitameatavegamin" episode of I Love Lucy, in which Lucy accidentally gets drunk while filming a commercial.
Both 'Fox News' and Jeanine Pirro denied she had been drinking during that episode.
In a statement from Fox News obtained by People, the network said the broadcast was riddled with technical difficulties, which also explained why she started 15 minutes late. One of the issues was the loss of her teleprompter, hence Jeanine playing things a bit fast and loose.
The statement continued, "As we have previously said, we are operating with a reduced staff working remotely to ensure the health and safety of our employees in these unprecedented times."
A source told People that not only was Jeanine not drunk, but she doesn't drink, period. In response to one of the many clips shared to X, Jeanine said that her hair was messed up because "IFB" was "grabbing" it, and there was no staff around to fix it.
An "IFB" stands for Interruptible Foldback, and is the earpiece worn by on-set talent. "I was in a truck where that was not prepared to broadcast bec [sic] we had no connection, no visual and no teleprompter," she said.