What Happened to John Roberts on Fox News? Death Rumors Spark Concern

When it comes to keeping up with celebrities, the internet is a powerhouse of information. You can track everything from their relationship and marital status to when they're having children and all the way down to the daily details like what their favorite coffee brand is or where they buy their groceries.

But the internet isn't always a force for good. Every now and then, the rumor wheel spins something nefarious into the mix: a death rumor. Fox News host John Roberts was recently the recipient of just such a rumor, and he had an amusing response to finding out through the internet that he had passed away.

Here's what we know about what happened to Fox News host John Roberts and why the rumor took flight so quickly.

Social media is not a perfect place to get the news. And when you toss in AI, it gets even shakier. Not only do you get misrepresentations, but sometimes you get outright lies. Such was the case for John in February 2025 after an AI robot took its wild guessing a little too far.

On Feb. 7, 2025, John shared a video to X (formerly Twitter) of himself playing the guitar. He benignly captioned it, "Something we all wish we had more of," he added, "And I'm not talking about my guitar playing."

X's embedded chatbot, Grok, which often adds summaries and context to posts, somehow interpreted this as declaring his death.

The chatbot summarized under the post, "John Roberts, the musician mentioned, recently passed away on Feb. 3, 2025, which might add a layer of poignancy to this post showcasing his guitar playing."

Upon discovering his death via X, John amusingly re-shared the post with the AI summary and captioned it, "Oh my ... either Grok's algorithm needs a little tweak ... or I'm in trouble."

Clearly, John is alive and kicking. Or perhaps the chatbot has decided to step in his shoes and post for him, lamenting his loss. But we're going to go with the logical former and say John Roberts is just fine.

There is a reason, however, that such a rumor is believable.

Although John is hearty and robust in his anchoring on Fox News, he has experienced several major health complications in the past.

In 2022, John discussed having a pacemaker installed and what it meant for his life.

Then as recently as April of 2024, John had to undergo a cardiac ablation, which is another heart-related surgery for an irregular heartbeat.

Although he is ostensibly doing well after both procedures and has not seemed to suffer from his health complications, it's understandable that people might worry that his cardiac health had suddenly worsened.

Luckily, despite Grok's bizarre speculation, John appears to be alive, well, and highly amused with the rest of us.