Fox News apparently did not let Shepard Smith come out as gay. Reports suggest he is currently dating a 26 year old producer.

American TV news anchor, Shepard Smith in spite of being in a long-term relationship with boyfriend and FOX TV producer Giovanni Gio Graziano, is unable to openly celebrate his sexuality. When he tried to come out as gay, his homophobe boss FOX President Roger Ailes denied him stating that the network’s famously conservative audience would not tolerate a gay news anchor. I wonder which era does Ailes think his audience belong to?

Born in Holly Springs, Mississippi circa January 14, 1964, Smith first started his media career reporting for WCJB-TV. He joined the FOX News Channel since its inception in 1996. Throughout his media career, he has covered several major news. In 1997, he covered the death and funeral of H.R.H Diana, Princess of Wales. In 2001, he was one of the media witnesses to the execution of Timothy Mcveigh. In August 2005, he provided news reports on the events and the aftermath of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Fox Report with Shepard Smith was a top-rated newscast in cable news and has been ranked third in the top programs in U.S. cable news. In addition to anchoring Fox News Channel's flagship news program, Smith also anchors most prime time news presentations provided by Fox News for the Fox television network. On September 12, 2013, Smith and Fox News announced that, along with another multiyear renewal of his contract, his role in Fox News would shift. He would become the managing editor of Fox News' new breaking news division and the host of Shepard Smith Reporting

Apart from being a news anchor, Smith has also appeared as himself in the film Volcano. Video of Smith anchoring on Fox News Channel during the opening moments of the March 2003 Iraq War was also used in the film Fahrenheit 9/11. In 1987, he married girlfriend Virginia Donald only to divorce after 6 years with no children. His former wife Virginia Donald was his University of Mississippi’s classmate.

In 2013, he was rumored to be dating his co-worker Graziano, 26. The news has been confirmed by many of their close friends and co-works but never Smith and Graziano themselves. According to multiple sources close to them, the couple met sometime after Graziano started working at Fox Report in October 2011 as a production assistant. He’s the man with whom Smith frequents Bathtub Gin.

In 2013, Gawker confirmed the identity of Smith’s boyfriend by hunting down a waitress from Bathtub Gin;

“Yes, that’s Shepard’s boyfriend,” Katya Minskova, the Bathtub Gin waitress Smith berated in March when shown a photo of Graziano. In September 2015, he publicly called out Kentucky clerk Kim Davis for her anti-gay methods, “Haters are going to hate. We thought what this woman wanted was an accommodation, which they’ve granted her, something that worked for everybody. But it’s not what they want.”

Shepard Smith’s salary ranges somewhere from $7 to 8 million. He has an estimated net worth of $20 million.