Photo: Matt Napolitano via Instagram
Longtime FOX Audio Network anchor and reporter Matt Napolitano died at the age of 33 due to an infection, his husband, Ricky Whitcomb, announced on his X account Sunday (December 24).
“With a heavy heart I have to share that my husband @MattNapolitano passed away yesterday morning,” Whitcomb wrote. “He loved his job and he loved bringing the news to your radios and televisions. An honest journalist who truly cared about facts. You can thank him for the last minute [New York] Jets win today.”
Whitcomb said his husband -- whom he married just seven months prior -- "had an auto immune disease that he was diagnosed with almost 20 years ago and died as the result of an infection" in a separate post.
Napolitano, a two-time Associated Press Journalism Award winner for Best Overall Newscast, initially joined FOX News Radio in 2015 as a sports anchor, which included covering the Super Bowl, World Series, Daytona 500 and other championship events and later made appearances on Neil Cavuto's FOX Business Network show.
“Matt did everything from anchoring to writing and producing for our audio platforms and loved being able to work in the journalism field that he trained for his entire life,” Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott wrote in a memo to staff Sunday, which was obtained by Deadline.com. “He began his Fox career in 2015 as a writer for our dedicated SiriusXM news channel Fox News Headlines 24/7. There, he quickly demonstrated his writing, producing and on-air skills. He soon became a sports reporter for the service and further excelled in that position."
Napolitano also achieved a lifelong dream of being a contestant on both 'Jeopardy!' in 2020 and 'Wheel of Fortune' in 2016.