By BEN ASHFORD
It’s been barely two days since his brutal ouster from Fox News – but Tucker Carlson looks like a man without a care in the world.
The TV firebrand shrugged off the media storm and insisted he was more interested in enjoying a romantic date with his wife Susan as he broke his silence in an exclusive chat with DailyMail.com.
‘Retirement is going great so far,’ chuckled Carlson, 53, as he emerged from his $5.5 million beach home in Boca Grande, Florida on Tuesday night.
‘I haven’t eaten dinner with my wife on a weeknight in seven years.’
Pressed on his future, the flame-throwing former host of Tucker Carlson Tonight flashed a broad smile and joked: ‘Appetizers plus entree.’
Dad-of-four Carlson zoomed off in a golf cart without elaborating on reports that he was ‘blindsided’ by Monday’s shock announcement that he was ‘parting ways’ with Fox – despite being the network’s biggest prime-time star.
But DailyMail.com understands that he spent Tuesday huddling with right-hand man Justin Wells – who lost his executive producer gig – as the cable news veterans plotted their next move.
Former Fox host Glenn Beck and Jeremy Boreing, the founder of conservative media company, The Daily Wire, have both said they’d love to offer a job to Carlson, who courted controversy by arguing against US involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and rejected the notion that January 6 was an insurrection.
Sources say, however, that Carlson is unlikely to make any significant moves while powerhouse Hollywood attorney Bryan Freedman negotiates his exit package with Fox Corp brass.
Freedman is also representing axed CNN anchors Don Lemon – who was fired the same day as Carlson – and Chris Cuomo, who wants a $125 million payout for wrongful termination.
The shakeup at Fox came six days after it announced a $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, which accused the network’s hosts of ‘giving life’ to a ‘manufactured storyline’ about voter fraud in the 2020 election.
The suit exposed a trove of awkward internal emails and texts, including messages in which Carlson revealed that he ‘passionately’ hated Donald Trump and complained about senior execs, allegedly labelling one a c***.
Carlson is also at the center of a lawsuit lodged by former booking producer Abby Grossberg who claims she was subjected to bullying, sexism and anti-Semitism while working on his nightly 8pm show, a ratings behemoth that regularly drew more than three million viewers.
Grossberg told MSNBC Tuesday how she celebrated Carlson and Wells losing their jobs because they made her life a ‘living hell’. Liberal opponents took to social media to gloat over the host’s demise.
Carlson looked unphased by their glee as he left his secluded Gulf Coast home and headed out for date night, smiling broadly, and dressed in a smart, blue button-down shirt and khaki pants.
Sat beside him on the golf cart was Susan Andrews Carlson, 53, his college sweetheart and wife of 32 years, who wore a pretty, patterned dress and draped her hand affectionately across her husband’s lap.
The loved-up pair – who have four children, Buckley, Dorothy, Lillie, and Hopie – pulled over briefly to talk with a DailyMail.com reporter before Tucker sped away into the humid Florida evening, howling with laughter.
Ah, the old O’Reilly formula. I suppose the left feels this will stop the exposure of their many and destructive lies.
Meanwhile Don Lemon’s phone hasn’t stopped ringing with barista and Walmart greeter job offers pouring in.