Fox News anchor Dana Perino hosts America’s Newsroom during the morning and then is a usual guest on the highest-rated program on cable news — The Five — which keeps her busy in the political world. But she says her job doesn’t define who she is as a person.
During a Q&A with InStyle magazine, Perino was asked how she balances her mental health amidst a steady flow of oftentimes negative news and a high-stress job.
“Politics is what I do for a living and I love it, but it is not my life. I would say during those White House years, it was my life, and I had to have a big reset,” she shared. “If you work in the White House—I don’t care which administration it is—you are dedicated. And I loved it, but it does give me a healthy sense of how I can balance [now]. I love to work—I could work 18 hours a day, it doesn’t bother me—but sleep also has to be a priority.”
She joked that — to keep politics and her professional life separate from her personal life — she has disciplined guidelines in place.
“I have a rule: No politics at the dog park. For the most part, people in New York don’t even care what you do for a living. I’ve loved that about living here. If anyone ever does want to talk politics with me at the dog park, I always say, ‘Oh, sorry, I don’t talk politics at the dog park,’ and they laugh and they move on,” she said. “Even at dinner with friends, I find that if I’m not instigating it, then I don’t really have a lot of people asking me about it.”
