Kayleigh McEnany says it is possible to have children and a high-powered career, though the balance is difficult. In an exclusive interview with USA TODAY published August 29, 2026, the former White House press secretary and current Fox News host described how she juggled motherhood while serving as Trump’s press secretary, emphasizing that the two ambitions “are not mutually exclusive.”
McEnany, now 38, had her first baby in 2019 while working on Trump’s 2020 campaign. She became White House press secretary in April 2020 when her daughter was just 4 months old, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since leaving the White House, she and her husband have had two more children.
When Trump called to offer her the role, McEnany recalled the moment vividly. She was in a car, reaching back to hand her 3-month-old daughter a pink pacifier and hoping “she would not cry during the phone call.” She said she felt “a lot of apprehension” about accepting. “Not on taking the job – I was very excited from a career perspective to be taking it. But as a mom, I was thinking, ‘How can I do this?'”
The demands of the press secretary role are intense. McEnany told USA TODAY that the job meant “working around the clock, and you can’t control when a press inquiry comes in.” During her tenure, she initially left her baby with her mother and husband in Florida while she worked in Washington, but eventually her family moved to DC. She made sure to have dinner with them when they were all together and flew to Florida on weekends when her daughter was there.
McEnany credited Trump and then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows with supporting her family time. She recalled one moment when Meadows noticed her checking the clock during a White House event. “I need to make the flight,” she remembered thinking. “I want to see my daughter. I didn’t even express that to [Meadows], but he walked over to me and said, ‘Kayleigh, don’t you usually catch a flight around this time? Get out of here. Go see your family.'”
On another occasion, Trump urged her to prioritize family. After she flew with him on a day trip and returned on Marine One on a Saturday night, Trump kept asking where her daughter and family were. “Kayleigh, next time send one of the younger (aides) on the trip. You go be with your family. Nothing is more important than that time,” he told her.
The experience of female press secretaries balancing motherhood has become a notable pattern. According to a USA TODAY analysis cited in the Union Leader, the last six White House press secretaries—Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Stephanie Grisham, McEnany, Jen Psaki, Karine Jean-Pierre, and Karoline Leavitt—all had young children under age 10 when they started. These women stayed an average of 18 months, roughly a year less than their male predecessors. Karoline Leavitt recently stepped down as press secretary to focus on her two young children after serving for about a year.
McEnany acknowledged the emotional toll. “There are definitely moments when you’re sad,” she said. “I remember one time being in a motorcade thinking, ‘I want to see my daughter.’ But I knew that she would be very proud of me for having had this job.”
Now, she shares advice with other working mothers. “I would say prioritize family time, and when you are in that moment, learn to put down your phone. Learn to put down your device,” McEnany said. “Make the minutes count, and make the moments count. Because it’s about quality of time rather than the quantity of time.”
McEnany said she has cherished memories from her time in the White House—pictures of her daughter sitting on her desk and her daughter’s stroller in the building. She recalled dancing with her daughter to “Frozen” while the Marine Band spontaneously played “Let it Go.” Her daughter, now 6, is proud of those memories and loves looking through the pictures. McEnany said she wouldn’t trade those moments for anything.
Sources
- USA TODAY — exclusive interview with Kayleigh McEnany on balancing motherhood and White House press secretary role, published August 29, 2026
- Union Leader — analysis of female White House press secretaries and motherhood patterns, citing USA TODAY data
