Jesse Watters, Fox News host, announced late on Wednesday that he is taking a sudden vacation from his show, “The Five” after receiving harsh criticism for his sexually charged remarks about Ivanka Trump.
“I’m going to be taking a vacation with my family, so I’m not going to be here tomorrow,” Watters said during his show, according to reports. “I’ll be back on Monday, so don’t miss me too much.”
His sudden departure comes only three days after his show was moved into the prime-time slot. Brian Stelter of CNN noted that Watters will miss two days of his first week in prime time and his weekend show too.
During his show on Tuesday night, Watters commented on the way President Donald Trump’s daughter held the microphone while talking about women’s rights at a panel discussion in Germany.
“It’s funny. The left says they really respect women and then when given an opportunity to respect a woman like that they boo and hiss … so I don’t really get what’s going on here, but I really liked how she was speaking into that microphone,” Watters said.
Watters made a gesture with his hand tilted toward his mouth as he made the comment and then also gave a smirk to his co-hosts.
The very next morning however, Watters justified that his remarks were not, in any way, meant to be sexual.
“During the break, we were commenting on Ivanka’s voice and how it was low and steady and resonates like a smooth jazz radio DJ,” he said. “This was in no way a joke about anything else.”
Watters’ comments come in the wake of Fox News’ severing of ties with Chairman Roger Ailes and former host Bill O’Reilly over a series of sexual harassment allegations.
The TV cable network fired O’Reilly last week.
