'Fox & Friends First' Host Jillian Mele Is Leaving to Focus on Her Personal Life

Regular fans of Fox & Friends First may notice an absence from the show in the weeks ahead. That's because one of the show's anchors, Jillian Mele, announced on Oct. 29 that that show would be her last with the network. During her final segment, Jillian held back tears as she explained why she had decided to leave, and how grateful she was to the team at Fox News for the support they'd shown her.

“Today is my last day here at Fox News,” Jillian said during the segment. “This, as you know, has been the most difficult decision I have ever made in my life. In part because I love working here and I love the people here because you are friends. You are family. And I feel so blessed to have had this time here but, ultimately I had to do what was right for me and I thank you for welcoming me into your home every single morning.”

Jillian added that she's planning to focus on her personal life in the months ahead, and that she hadn't gotten a chance to sleep past 1 a.m. in her entire adult life. Jillian also said that she would be getting her MBA at La Salle University in her native city of Philadelphia.

"This is such family you and Carley and Ashley and Janice, everybody here have been such important people in my life,” she continued.

"And to everyone here, the bosses, Gavin, Lauren who is a saint, Suzanne Scott, Jay Wallace, everyone who believed in me, thank you from the bottom of my heart because I am a better person for having been here," Jillian said.

Jillian has been a consistent presence on Fox & Friends, and she was treated to a montage of clips as part of her final segment with the network.

After the montage of her best moments on Fox was done, Fox & Friends First co-host Todd Spiro expressed his own sentiments about Jillian. "You mean so much to everybody here," he said. "A lot of tears today not just from your thank you at home. Because you are also my family our family and you are going to be just fine.”

As she said during her final segment, Jillian's reasons for leaving Fox seem to have more to do with achieving a better balance between work and the rest of her life. Although plenty of Fox personalities have been snatched by far-right networks like OANN and Newsmax, that doesn't appear to be Jillian's plan.

Instead, she's taking her career in a different direction. 1 a.m. is a pretty brutal wake-up call, and it seems like Jillian may be ready to work a slightly more normal, 9 to 5 kind of gig. One thing her final segment made clear, though, is that Jillian will definitely be missed.