Tragic Details Of Morning Joe's Mika Brzezinski

"Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski has caught the public's attention for several reasons throughout her career in broadcasting. From her major transformation as a television personality and subsequent romance with co-host Joe Scarborough to her petty feud with fellow broadcaster Megyn Kelly, Brzezinski's viewers and the public have witnessed several moments that have kept her name circulating throughout the public zeitgeist.

In the wake of Brzezinski's eventful career, however, certain tragic moments surrounding her life, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes, have been well-publicized. As a result, some may know that, underneath her exterior as a television host, there lie some deeper details about her life which have had varying effects on her both professionally and personally throughout the years.

Mika Brzezinski and her husband and "Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough stirred up some controversy on November 18, 2024, when they made the ill-advised decision to meet with President-elect Donald Trump to possibly ease tensions between them and avoid the retaliation he's threatened toward his detractors. After the meeting took place, the co-hosts were subsequently condemned by a slew of liberal fans and personalities, including MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski. "Morning Joe jumped the shark," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Commenters reciprocated Filipkowski's sentiments, stating their displeasure with the hosts and their alleged hypocrisy. "Joe Scarborough & Mika Brzezinski caved to Donald Trump," one X user commented. "They traveled to Mar-a-Lago to have an audience with the 1st king of the USA. How pragmatic of them. I've lost all respect for this opportunistic pair of imposters & I will have a hard time watching their MSNBC morning show."

To make matters worse, Brzezinski and Scarborough's actions opened the floodgates for substantial viewership loss. After the meeting occurred, a significant quantity of liberal viewers swiftly showed themselves the door and stopped watching the program, thus causing its audience numbers to drop from an average of 1.1 million to 618,000 viewers, a whopping 43% difference, per Fox News.

Like many of his media adversaries, President-elect Donald Trump was not afraid to go after "Morning Joe's" Mika Brzezinski in the wake of her own criticism toward him. One instance, which occurred in June 2017, got particularly embarrassing when Trump alleged Brzezinski had gotten a face-lift and showed gruesome signs of it while trying to interact with him at his Mar-a-Lago Resort. "She was bleeding badly from a face-lift," he wrote on X.

However, the situation got more awkward when Brzezinski came forward and revealed she had, in fact, had some work done — though it wasn't a complete face-lift, as Trump claimed. Rather, she had simply had some minor work done on her chin, and she handled delivering the news with poise. "It was amazing, and speaking of my face, while we're there, I had my chin tweaked," she said on "Morning Joe" (via Washington Examiner). "The skin under my chin. I'm pretty transparent about what I do, and I think it looks awesome." However, such attacks demonstrated Trump's unrestrained willingness to viciously go after his enemies, a notion which might have played into the 2024 meeting that landed Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough in some hot water.

Mika Brzezinski had a brief health scare in 2023 that changed her outlook on her mortality. Brzezinski ended up in an emergency room after feeling unwell during an episode of "Morning Joe," citing chest pain, shortness of breath, and disorientation as her primary symptoms. Though it was believed her symptoms could have been the result of a blood clot, it turned out they were residuals from looming stress, exhaustion, and menopause. "Doctors told me the way that I had been feeling was likely the result of a perfect storm," she wrote in an essay for MSNBC.

The preceding events were eye-opening moments for Brzezinski, who took them as a lesson to better manage herself. "Hitting menopause at 56 was a huge wakeup call for me," she said. "I realized I needed to drastically change my lifestyle." To better her health, she made significant adjustments, like altering her workout routine and diet. She said her hospital visit was a blessing in disguise, especially considering what its alternate outcomes could have been.

In her book, "All Things at Once," Brzezinski described another time when she and her daughter, Carlie, fell down a flight of stairs, and the four-month-old had to be rushed to a hospital. "Her tiny body had gone limp," she wrote. "'She's not moving!' I screamed into the phone. 'The noises she's making are all wrong. It doesn't sound like her. And she's not moving at all, from her chest down!'"
Though her daughter fortunately survived, the sequence of events made Brzezinski, who was overbooked and exhausted when she fell down the stairs with her baby, reconsider her priorities and find the proper balance between work and family life. "It's because I've taken a close, tough look at some of those missteps that I'm able to walk a more certain road today," she said. "It's because of that effort and the support of my husband and children that the journey continues."