This Is The True Story Of Fox News Host Tucker Carlson

Tucker Carlson is an instantly recognizable face, thanks to his time on Fox News. And because the Tucker Carlson Tonight host certainly isn’t shy about giving his opinions on and off screen – sometimes provoking a little controversy as he goes – you may think you have the full measure of the man. Though, there’s more that you may have missed about the political commentator – and some of Carlson’s story could very well surprise you.

His role, as he sees it

For starters, Carlson paints himself as something of a romantic hero. In 2018 he told the Columbia Journalism Review, “My role is really simple: I want to tell the truth as I see it. I want to be as honest as I can. I don’t think of myself as representing any group of people anywhere.”

A formative start

And perhaps that desire for truth-telling originates somewhere in Carlson’s childhood. In any case, his father, Richard Warner Carlson, had worked in journalism before becoming Voice of America’s director. Then, later in life, Richard had become a diplomat, heading up the mission to the Seychelles. Carlson, meanwhile, was born as the first son of Richard and his former wife, Lisa McNear.

Abandoned by mom

But that family unit would eventually dissolve. Carlson had asserted, for example, that his mother had disappeared from the picture in pursuit of a more nonconformist lifestyle when he had just been a small boy. Eventually, McNear would go on to spend her days in South Carolina and southern France, during which she allegedly only touched base with Carlson intermittently. She went on to remarry, too, getting hitched to the artist Michael Vaughn.

A new start

Carlson wasn’t the only child in the family, though, as by that point McNear had given birth to another son: Buckley Peck Carlson. Then, in 1976, Carlson’s mom and dad finalized their divorce after nine years of marriage. And after that, Richard ended up with custody of the two young boys, whom he set out to raise alone.