Fox Sports Broadcaster Gets Emotional as Dad Praises Her ‘Amazing’ Fortitude

Published: August 15, 2025

By Mallory Mattingly

Fox Sports broadcaster Erin Andrews’ dad, Steve, turned to God as his daughter faced immense trials over the years, recently praising her “amazing” strength.

In 2008, Andrews dealt with a stalker, and Steve was diagnosed with prostate cancer shortly after. Andrews was then diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2016, which “came in the middle of a nine-year journey with in-vitro fertilization with husband Jarret Stoll, in which they were trying to conceive.”

“The whole stalking incident was just emotionally devastating for her,” Steve, an Emmy-winning investigative reporter, said in a prerecorded interview for TODAY of the stalking incident. “It was terrifying because we didn’t know who this was, how it happened, whether she was safe — that was the big question.”

“Her sister called me a day or two after it happened, and she’s [saying], ‘Is she OK? Is she safe, Dad?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know. I really don’t know,'” he recalled. “I had volunteered, ‘I’ll go on the road with you, wherever you are. You know, I’ll be with you 24/7, whatever you want.’ What do you do? You try and get through it.”

Shortly after Andrews took the stalker to trial, her father was diagnosed with prostate cancer, followed by her cervical cancer diagnosis in 2016.

“It’s scary to hear your child on the phone calling you and saying, ‘I have cancer,'” Steve said. “I wanted to cry. I was brokenhearted. “You have conversations with your God, and as a dad, I just said, ‘Let her be OK. Take me, let her be OK,’ It was hard.”

Andrews went into surgery in October 2016 and came out cancer-free. However, that cancer came in the middle of Erin and her husband, Jarrett, trying to have a child. In 2023, the couple welcomed their son, Mack, via surrogate.

“I kept hearing about how she wanted to be successful in her job and in her business, and she didn’t have time for anything else,” Steve said. “Then, when she was married and faced this cervical cancer issue, I think it hit her in the face. If you ever want to be a mom, now’s the time.”

Though she’s faced such immense challenges, Steve is impressed by his daughter’s fortitude.

“Erin is such a fighter,” he declared. “In broadcasting, when you get knocked down, you have to be able to get back up. And Erin has experienced these physical, traumatic incidents, and you would think for the average person, you’d, bam, on your back, you’re done.

“And she just used that as motivation to say, ‘This is not going to beat me, and they are not going to stop me from what I want to accomplish,'” he added. “And honestly, I don’t know that I have it in me to do what she did. She’s just so strong, so amazing.”

Erin added that it was thanks to her family and friends that she persevered.

“It’s funny…I feel like…when you are faced with certain things, you just have to put on the persona, ‘OK, I’ve got it, I’ll handle it,'” she said. “But then you can fall apart when you’re off camera, and my family has allowed me to do that.”

Steve and Erin’s story is a powerful reminder of the role parents play in their children’s lives, no matter how old they are.

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