A source close to Sean Hannity and Ainsley Earhardt tells PEOPLE that the two Fox News hosts have been privately dating “for years.”
Both denied the news of their relationship, which was initially revealed by Vanity Fair earlier Thursday.
“Right now, I’m focused on parenting my daughter,” Earhardt, a Fox & Friends co-host, stated through a network representative. “Anyone who works at Fox News will tell you that Sean is a fantastic person, and anybody he chooses to date will be tremendously lucky.”
“I do not discuss my personal life in public,” Hannity said in a statement released through a spokesman.
However, a source close to the matter claims that the two had “been secretly seeing each other for years.”
“He’s very discreet,” the insider says, “since he’s highly renowned and controversial,” but “it’s been an open secret that they’ve been seeing each other.”
Earhardt is renting a home near Hannity’s home studio on Long Island, New York, where he has been recording.
“They’re together all the time, but in private… for years, not months,” the person said.
According to the source, Ainsley Earhardt and Sean Hannity have been seen together “acting flirty in off-hours” and “getting cuddly in the back of” a New York City bar not far from the Fox News studios, “acting flirty in off-hours” and “getting cozy in the back of” a New York City bar.
“And he’s taken her on vacations on his chopper numerous times,” the person adds.
According to Vanity Fair, Earhardt accompanied Hannity on his helicopter to the wedding of another Fox News personality, Pete Hegseth, in August.
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Hannity and his ex-wife, Jill Rhodes, announced last week that they had discreetly split more than a year ago and had been apart for years. They have been married for over 20 years.
The former couple said in a joint statement to PEOPLE on June 3, “Sean and Jill are committed to collaborating for their children’s best interests. Sean and Jill have been in a friendly relationship for nearly four years. They have a close relationship with their children as parents.”
“Neither will make any further statements and ask that their privacy be respected for the sake of their children,” the statement added.
Hannity has two children with former journalist Rhodes, 57: son Sean Patrick, 21, and daughter Merri Kelly, 18.
After filing for divorce in October 2018, Earhardt, 43, finalized her own divorce from ex-husband Will Proctor in 2019. Hayden, the couple’s 4-year-old daughter, was born in 2012.
In an October 2019 interview with PEOPLE, she expressed gratitude that her divorce “is over,” and that she and Proctor are still focused on raising their daughter together.
“We’re concentrating on getting things done and raising our daughter.” We sincerely wish each other the best, and we will remain friends for the rest of our life since we share this amazing, lovely girl. “She is our primary priority,” Earhardt remarked at the time, referring to Hayden, who was born three months after a miscarriage. “She is the ray of sunshine in my life.”
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Earhardt went on to say that she and her ex-husband are “co-parenting nicely.” [Hayden] adores both her mother and father, and we both adore her.”
The TV personality also discussed the challenges of being a single mother with PEOPLE, as well as her opinions on marriage and having additional children in the future if she meets a new partner.
“I’d like to find love again, and I’d like to show Hayden a meaningful relationship one day.” She added at the time, “But I’m not sure when that will be.” “I know that if it’s God’s will, he’ll put the proper man in my life, and he’ll do it in his own time.”