Jimmy Kimmel has been quietly supported behind the scenes by his producer wife Molly McNearney, who also serves as the co-head writer on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Following five days of chaos, it was finally confirmed on Monday that the television host’s late-night talk show would be returning to ABC on tonight after it was pulled off the air ‘indefinitely’ due to his comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
‘It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive,’ ABC explained in a statement.
‘We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.’
But who is Jimmy’s wife Molly and how long have they been working together?
Jimmy, 57, met his second wife, Molly, 47, at work in the early noughties. He was previously married to Gina Maddy, his college sweetheart, from 1988 until 2002.
Originally, the funnyman had hired Molly as a writer’s assistant in 2004.
They didn’t start dating until six years later, in 2010 – the year after he ended his five-year relationship with fellow comedian Sarah Silverman – and eventually they wed in 2013.
Meet Jimmy Kimmel’s television producer wife Molly, who also works as co-lead writer on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
The coupe have been married since 2013. They first started dating in 2010
‘I like to keep it separate, and I’m very good at compartmentalizing work,’ Molly told Glamour in 2014.
‘At home, it’s a different relationship. At 10am he’s my boss, not my husband. He does say he’s my “husboss” but I refuse to call him that.’
While recalling her first impression of her husband, Molly revealed their awkward first exchange.
She told the publication: ‘When I first met him, he insulted me! The executive producer brought me into his office and said, “This is Molly, she’s my new assistant.”
‘Jimmy barely looked up from his desk until my EP said,”‘She competes in triathlons,” and then Jimmy looked up at me and said, “That is really stupid! What a waste of time.”
‘That was the first and only thing he probably said to me the entire first year of working there.’
As for whether she predicted their professional relationship would eventually turn romantic, the mother-of-two said ‘it never occurred’ as they were both in relationships and it is ‘workplace 101’ not to date your boss.
To date, Molly is credited with working on 469 episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Jimmy initially hired Molly as a writer on his ABC talk show in 2004. The series was temporarily taken off the air by ABC last week
Molly has also written material for the Emmys and the Oscars (pictured with their Emmy for Outstanding Writing in September 2024)
‘I absolutely love my job,’ she told Script Mag last year. ‘I love late night television. I think there’s such a magic to waking up as a writer with a blank page, I will say magical and daunting to wake up with an empty page and write some thoughts down.
‘Things that I would genuinely say and joke about to my friends, and I get paid to do it to write them for television.
‘And especially now in the current political climate, it helps me with my sadness. I wake up every morning, honestly, reading the news feeling both angry and sad.
‘And having an outlet for that – I feel very grateful for that – I get to put it somewhere and hopefully make a dent in or influence or make someone laugh in some dark times, or maybe even change someone’s opinion politically, which I know is impossible.’
Besides working on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, her other gigs include writing material for The Oscars in 2017, 2018, 2023, and 2024 as well as writing on Freeform’s dinner party series Chrissy & Dave Dine Out in 2024.
Over the years, Molly has not held back from calling out President Donald Trump in jokes and on her social media.
Jimmy and Molly have been married 12 years and are proud parents of Jane, 11, and Billy, eight
Molly is also step-mom to Jimmy’s two adult childre daughter Katie, 34; and son Kevin, nearly 32 – from his 14-year marriage to ex-wife
She previously hit out at Trump, 79, over his 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and pointed out how ‘one in three women in this country’ are currently living under an abortion ban because he ‘stacked our Supreme Court.’
In 2022, Molly tweeted her anti-gun views: ‘Today I #WearOrange because taking our kids to school shouldn’t be a life or death decision.
‘Ban assault weapons. Pass universal background checks. And vote out anyone too cowardly to put kids before guns.’
Molly and Jimmy have previously shared insight into their 12-year marriage.
‘Our date nights are like, lying in bed watching TV,’ he told People in an interview last year. ‘We don’t like to go out.’
‘So hot,’ Molly agreed. ‘That is a nice night for us. To not do anything is the best kind of date for us. Postmates and Netflix, and it’s perfect. Or Hulu, of course.’
