Ex-White House press secretary Dana Perino hosts programs daily on Fox News,
but she's worked hard for her high-profile position
as a political thought leader in the United States. Here's the untold truth about her.
Dana Perino was born in Wyoming, and two years later, her family moved to Colorado.
Wyoming remained an important place in her life, though,
as she spent summers on her grandfather's ranch. She cites him as a great influence
in her life. Speaking to Business Insider about her grandfather's impact, Perino had this to say:
"Ranchers, by their nature, have to be optimistic. They have to believe that the cattle will survive
the winter and that the crops are going to grow — so I think I have a sunny disposition naturally."
She carried that disposition into her professional life by always looking for the,
quote, "good news." Her grandfather wasn't Perino's only influence, however.
She credits her father for her initial interest in journalism, as she would read two newspapers
every evening before he returned home from work in search of articles to discuss with
him over dinner. Perino explained to Business Insider's podcast, "Success! How I Did It,"
"He would play the devil's advocate and really help my critical thinking."
Of the practice he worked to instill in his daughter during these debates,
her father, Leo Perino, said to Newsmax,
"I tried to develop the idea that there are always two sides to each story."
Spending time as a child on a ranch, Dana Perino is no stranger to hard work.
Becoming the White House press secretary obviously didn't happen overnight, as she
first gained experience in multiple fields, including journalism and politics. That said,
Perino still uses knowledge from both fields to this day as a correspondent on Fox News.
Before her high-profile work on TV, Perino earned her master's degree in public affairs at the
University of Illinois Springfield and worked for politicians, local news stations, and the Justice
Department, tackling communications issues that others shied away from, like murder trials, tax
policy, and the environment. Perino told Business Insider's "Success! How I Did It" podcast,
"One of my pieces of advice is take the jobs nobody else wants to do."
Perino also noted that she was, quote, "super happy being behind the scenes."
Following her time working in various positions with the Bush administration in the White House
beginning in 2001, Perino added titles like author and news anchor to her resume,
further putting her communications and political insight to good use.
But she added another title, as well: college professor. In 2010,
Perino taught a course in political communications at George Washington University's Graduate School
of Political Management for a short time, marrying many of her passions.
Perino made history when she became the White House press secretary — the second woman
and first Republican woman to ever hold the position — after her predecessor, Tony Snow,
was diagnosed with terminal cancer and stepped down. Although she had previously planned to
leave her "grueling" job as the deputy press secretary at the White House, Perino stayed
when she was offered this coveted promotion by the director of communications, Ed Gillespie.
The communications guru worked as press secretary from 2007 until the end of President
Bush's administration in January of 2009. The job, as one can imagine, was very stressful,
and Perino was left with a ringing in her ear for nearly two years afterward.
Speaking with the "Success! How I Did It" podcast, she admitted that
she regrets not prioritizing her health while working for the president, saying:
"Everything just sort of took a toll. And it was one of the things I wish I had done better
and that I encourage young people to do because people are stressed out all the time [...] [T]he
only thing that you can do, for sure, that you are responsible for, is taking care of yourself."
Not only was her job as press secretary stressful, it proved to be dangerous at
times, as well. According to Newsweek, Perino was injured on the job in 2008,
when a journalist threw two shoes at then-President George W. Bush
while at a press conference in Baghdad with then-Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
"So what if the guy threw the shoe at me."
As Perino later detailed to NPR, a Secret Service member lunged forward to protect the president
and inadvertently hit the microphone stand, which "swung around" and hit Perino's eye,
leaving her with a bruise. She left the room while Bush remained to finish out the press conference,
but the painful injury was substantial enough to cause tears, which the ex-POTUS thought
were in response to the journalist throwing shoes. Perino told NPR she responded with,
"Well, sir, I adore you, but I grew up in Wyoming and I'm a little tougher than that."
Perino suffered her injury at the tail end of Bush's administration,
leaving her to finish her job with visible evidence of the scene. Thankfully,
that was the only incident of its kind during her tenure as press secretary.
"The shoe check-in policy, check-out policy, will begin tomorrow."
Dana Perino knows her professional experiences are rare, and she uses everything she's learned
to help others — young women in her field, especially — make advances both
professionally and personally by happily providing them with pieces she's learned
in her decades of work in communications and politics. Perino told CBS News in 2021,
"As I mentor young women in their careers and life choices,
I return to my grandfather's wisdom [...]”
"respect your commitments, speak gently, and treat others with love."
Perino's love of mentoring led her to start a foundation called Minute Mentoring as a
way to help young women who are too busy to seek out role models and get advice,
but need and want it to excel in their careers. Knowing that other mentors,
just like her, don't always have the time to provide this mentorship,
Perino and her co-founders structured the program to accommodate the busy schedules of all involved.
Further showing her expertise at combining her passions, Perino took her love of mentoring
and wrote a bestselling book full of advice she's learned throughout her storied career.
Again, since she admittedly doesn't have as much time as she would like
to mentor young women, the Fox News host authored 2021's Everything Will Be Okay:
Life Lessons for Young Women as a solution to this problem.
Prior to that, Perino released And the Good News Is...:
Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side in 2015, a book which accounts her life
growing up in Colorado and her time as the White House press secretary. In an
interview with HolyCitySinner.com, Perino had this to say about And the Good News Is:
"The book is geared toward women, but offers practical advice many
young people can follow. I'm glad it's been well received."
For over 20 years, Dana Perino has been married to Britain native
Peter McMahon. As the Fox News host revealed on Facebook in 2017,
the longtime couple met on an airplane back in 1997. Perino told Forbes,
"We were sitting next to each other by chance. Two hours later we were in love."
McMahon, who is 18 years older than Perino, was married twice before and has two children
from a previous marriage, but does not share any kids with Perino. Though he's been a supportive
husband throughout Perino's career, keeping the house together while she was busy working at the
White House and encouraging her to follow her dreams no matter what, this businessman
has tons of experience and success of his own working in the medical field, per his LinkedIn
account. As of October 2021, he has worked as the president of Greensleeve Surgical since 2016.
Dana Perino has loved dogs since she was a kid — her grandfather had work dogs on his ranch and
her family had a pet dog. As such, Perino wrote her 2016 book, Let Me Tell You About Jasper...:
How My Best Friend Became America's Dog, about her beloved dog named — you guessed it — Jasper,
who joined the Perino-McMahon household in 2012. When authoring her first book,
the Fox News host wanted to include a chapter about her love for dogs,
but her editor made her cut it on the promise he'd one day publish an entire book on this subject.
Since Let Me Tell You About Jasper was released during an election year, Perino hoped it would
remind people about our commonalities, telling her co-hosts on Fox News' The Five:
"Dogs help us transcend politics. And, in what has felt like a pretty polarized year for our country,
I do think that we can find some common ground in our love for our family pet."
Perino is an avid reader who routinely recommends books both on The Five and
on the Fox Nation program she hosts called Dana Perino's Book Club, where she chats
with authors about their work. She also hosted Storytime with Dana Perino for a short time
at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, using the segment to read children's books.
Basically, Perino prides herself on being well-read. In fact, while working at the White
House, she was often insecure about her education background compared to that of her colleagues,
as most of them had attended Ivy League schools. According to her interview with the Deseret News,
to compensate for this and set herself apart, she ensured that she was always,
quote, "the most well-read person in the room," adding that it "gave [her] a measure of power."
It's perhaps no surprise, then, that the Fox News host also enjoys spending
her weekend afternoons reading. Perino told HolyCitySinner.com,
"I love to learn new things, and I love to read."
Clearly. Because if her Twitter feed is anything to go by,
it's not uncommon for her to finish a book in a day or two.
Post-White House, Dana Perino was unsure of her next career move. She told Cosmopolitan:
"I knew I wanted to continue to have a voice in the debate."
Thanks to Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, Perino was able to do exactly what she wanted. After
having a conversation with Perino in Washington, D.C., Hannity suggested that the channel hire her,
according to Business Insider. Initially, there was pushback from network executives, as they
already had a "Bush Republican" in Karl Rove, but Hannity argued on Perino's behalf, saying,
"No, she's different — let me give it a shot."
After appearing on his show several times as a guest, she was offered a permanent job as a
contributor at Fox News in 2009. Two years later, a slot in the programming was vacant
due to Glenn Beck's departure. "The Five" was created as a temporary placeholder,
but did so well with viewers that it's been on air ever since, and Perino has been a co-host
since its inception. She's also gone on to host two of her own shows on the channel,
The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino and America's Newsroom, which she co-anchors with Bill Hemmer.
Dana Perino has always been practical when it comes to money, turning down jobs when she wasn't
going to earn enough and switching fields when the pay was too low. Per Business Insider, she even
advocated for herself at a young age when a male colleague was making $5,000 more than she was,
and soon received a raise after approaching her boss about the matter. Perino even told
Business Insider that after leaving grad school, she needed to, quote, "get a job and make money."
And after all her hard work in various fields, she's done exactly that. Through book sales
and her job co-hosting multiple programs on Fox News, Perino has amassed an estimated $6 million
fortune, per Celebrity Net Worth. In comparison with some of her co-hosts on The Five,
this sits at $7 million less than Greg Gutfeld's earnings,
but $1 million more than Jesse Watters and $4 million above Juan Williams. From the White
House to Fox News, she's become well known for breaking boundaries and proving she's just as
capable as the men in her field, and now Dana Perino's earning even more than most of them.
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