Fox News viewers who spent June trading side-by-side screenshots of their 9 p.m. host’s swollen face have now heard the fuller story from the man himself.
Sean Hannity, the 64-year-old Fox News host, told listeners of his radio program in October that he has bulging discs in his cervical spine, and that a high dose of prednisone prescribed to bring down the inflammation left his face visibly swollen on air.
Hannity attributed the damage to years of working out, martial arts, boxing and other exercise. The steroid dose, he said, “blew me up like a balloon.” Facial swelling, sometimes called “moon face,” is a well-known side effect of prednisone, which is widely prescribed to calm inflammation, and the trouble behind it began in his neck.
Screenshots Spread After the Miller Interview
Stephen Miller, a senior Trump adviser and White House deputy chief of staff, sat for the interview that aired on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, and the speculation took off from there. Clips and stills moved fast. The account @BadFoxGraphics placed January and June screenshots of the host side by side, and Josh Johnson, a host on “The Daily Show,” joked that week about Hannity’s enlarged cheeks.
He Answered the Critics on X
Hannity answered the next day. A pinched nerve in his neck had come on during training, he posted on X on Wednesday, June 24. His doctor then prescribed prednisone, which brought on laryngitis and puffiness, both normal for the medication.
“I’m fine, recovering well, and still training, but apparently a few weeks of prednisone has generated more social media commentary than 30 years of ratings success,” he wrote.
He described himself as recovering and said he had not stopped training — four days a week, a blend of Krav Maga, jujitsu and kenpo. He thanked everyone for the concern, including his critics in what he called the “left-wing media.” A pinched nerve, a raspy voice and a puffy face, he added, were not about to take him out.
The Steroid He Didn’t Want to Take
Two days before that post, Hannity had worked through the same subject on the air. On Monday, June 22, he asked Lynda McLaughlin, a frequent co-host on “The Sean Hannity Show,” whether his voice sounded better. McLaughlin told him America was excited he was “not dying of a stroke.”
A bad sinus infection had triggered the laryngitis, Hannity told listeners that day, and he had not wanted to start the steroid at all. His doctor told him to ride it out, he said, and assured him he was not hurting his vocal cords.
In October the laryngitis came back. He was sick again, he told listeners, his voice fading and returning mid-show, and he was reluctant to take prednisone because of its side effects. He also described the first neck episode as the worst pain he had ever experienced, and said Dr. Mehmet Oz helped connect him with a doctor when it hit.
Hannity has described no new diagnosis, no hospitalization and no surgery. He has kept up a full schedule. Fox listings showed new episodes of the program throughout late October, and the long-form podcast kept coming.
He Doesn’t Want to Slow Down
The workload was untouched, according to a Deseret News profile published Oct. 9: a nightly television show, a three-hour radio program and a twice-weekly podcast. The television and radio shows each run five times a week. “Hannity” holds Fox News’ 9 p.m. hour, where the profile said more than 2.6 million people watch each weeknight.
The profile was written as the conservative host marked 30 years at Fox News. His radio show reaches about 20 million people each week, and the podcast “Hang Out with Sean Hannity” launched this year. Four to five hours of sleep a night get him by, he told the paper, to the dismay of his doctor.
Cornel West, a longtime friend, urged him to ease up as the two taped a show together. “Brother Sean, you’re not a spring chicken, man,” West told him. Hannity’s answer: “I don’t want to slow down.”
Lawrence Jones, a Fox host he mentored, recalled telling Hannity on a day he was feeling unwell that he had nothing left to prove. The answer, according to Jones, was that he was not trying to accomplish anything more — he was trying to save the country.