Fox News Meteorologist Janice Dean Is a ‘Better Person’ After Living with Multiple Sclerosis for 20 Years (Exclusive)

By the fall of 2005, Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean felt the world was finally turning her way. “I was 35 years old, I just got a job at Fox, I had a great boyfriend. . . it all felt like a dream come true,” says Dean. So when she started feeling unusually tired, she didn’t think much of it.

“I just chalked it up to working too much, not taking care of myself, things like that,” she says.

Then in October, during a trip home to Ottawa to meet her boyfriend and his family, her agonizing fatigue suddenly became overwhelming. “I woke up one morning and literally couldn’t get out of bed,” says Dean. “It was nothing I had ever felt before. It was like I was wearing this blanket on me. I couldn’t feel the bottom of my feet, and I also had this weird numbness in my thighs. I asked myself, ‘What is wrong with me?’ ”

After a series of tests including an MRI and a spinal tap, doctors made a startling diagnosis: Dean had multiple sclerosis, a chronic autoimmune disease believed to affect as many as one million Americans.

“It was the shock of a lifetime,” says Dean. “I remember just feeling like it was going to end: that my boyfriend was going to leave me, that I was going to be in a wheelchair and I wasn’t going to be able to do my job at Fox. All my dreams have come crashing down.”

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Janice Dean on the set at Fox Studios in New York.

Michael Lewis

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Now, nearly two decades later, Dean can look back with gratitude that none of that happened. She and that boyfriend, New York firefighter Sean Newman, have been married since 2007, she’s celebrating her 20th anniversary at Fox (she’s now a Fox Weather contributor), and new treatment options have kept her MS flare-ups largely under control.

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

Dean, now 54, has also become a prominent voice in the MS community, sharing her story and reaching out to others diagnosed with the disease, which is characterized by an immune system attack on the protective myelin sheath of the fibers of the central nervous system. The resulting lesions or scar tissue interfere with the communication between the nerves and the brain.

Janice Dean with her husband Sean and sons Matthew and Theodore.

Courtesy of Janice Dean

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“Janice is a warrior,” says her neurologist Dr. Tracy DeAngelis. “She doesn’t let MS decide her life. She listens to her body, rests when she needs to and is an ardent advocate for herself and others.”

But learning to live with MS has been a journey for Dean. In the early days after her diagnosis, “people told me, ‘Don’t tell anyone. It will ruin your career,’ she recalls. She found a supportive shoulder in her Fox News colleague Neil Cavuto, who himself was diagnosed with MS in 1997.

“I called him and he said, ‘Come into my office,'” Dean recalls. “And he just turned off the televisions, sat me down and pulled out tissues. I remember him saying, ‘You’re going to be fine, and I’ll be here for anything you need.’ Cavuto assured her that their bosses would also support her. “He said that if they had to build ramps for his and her wheelchairs on the set,” she recalls. “I had someone who could hold my hand and I was very grateful for that.”

Janice Dean.

Michael Lewis

While the births of her two sons, Matthew in 2009 and Theodore in 2011, offered brief respites in her battle with MS — “We don’t really know why, but women who are pregnant rarely have major attacks,” Dean says — explaining her illness was its own challenge for her boys. Fortunately, she received unexpected help from a teacher at their elementary school who also has MS.

“I remember Matthew coming home and saying, ‘Today Mrs. Klein told us about what she called MS,'” says Dean. “There was that whole speech about her being in a wheelchair, but that didn’t stop her from doing what she loved. And I had tears in my eyes, because I said, ‘God gave me this moment.’ And I said, ‘Listen, I have the same thing as Mrs. Klein.’ ”

Janie Dean receives an IV in April 2018.

Courtesy of Janice Dean

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The boys seemed to take this news in stride. “Their first question was, ‘Will you need a wheelchair?’ “, Dean recalls. “And I said, ‘It’s possible, but would it matter?’ And I just remember Matthew saying, ‘No, because we’d just ride in a wheelchair.’ ”

Like an estimated 85 percent of sufferers, Dean has a relapsing-remitting form of MS, in which exacerbations are followed by periods of remission. Although she can currently keep her seizures mostly under control thanks to IV infusion treatments every six months, she knows it’s impossible to predict how her condition might change in the future.

“I could wake up one day and not be able to walk,” Dean says. “It’s just the craziness of this disease. So every day that I can get up and walk around is something I’m really grateful for.”

She also makes sure to stay away from triggers for the disease, making sure she gets enough sleep, avoids foods like bread and sugar that can cause inflammation, and stays out of the sun. “The sun and the heat are like kryptonite to me,” says Dean. “I can’t be out in the heat for a long time without getting sick again. So even though we have a tiny place on the beach, my kids know that when they go to the beach, Mom will be inside with the air conditioning.”

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Because she’s been so public about her disease, Dean finds that many newly diagnosed MS patients will reach out to her on social media, and she does her best to respond. “I feel connected to these people, because I know what it’s like to think that your life is going to be over,” she says. “And I had to tell Neil, ‘You’re going to be fine.’ So I’m trying to let them know that we’re getting better at fighting MS, and it’s going to be good.”

As for her own future, Dean tries really hard not to worry about the things she’s learned she can’t control. “Every time I go to the doctor, she’ll say, ‘You’re great.’ But you know, I feel great today. We never know what tomorrow will bring. I know that. So it’s kind of a reminder that you can only take it one moment at a time.”

And for Dean, the best way to fight MS is to not let it control her life. “Seeing someone doing something, even though they might be doing something else, makes you feel hopeful, doesn’t it?” she says. “I’ve heard people say, ‘I see you on TV with a big smile on your face and that makes me feel like I can do it.’ That’s really powerful. Sometimes it’s just a ray of sunshine peeking through the clouds. It’s like, ‘Okay, yeah. We can do this together.’ ”

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