Roger Ailes’ Journey With Hemophilia

On May 18, Roger Ailes, the former CEO of Fox News passed away at his home in Florida after suffering a fall. The 77-year-old was diagnosed with hemophilia at the age of two, after he fell, bit his tongue and couldn’t stop bleeding.

MORE: Six self-care tips for people living with hemophilia.

Despite his parents best efforts to keep him safe from injury, the future media mogul spent much of his childhood in the hospital, often after falling or suffering other minor incidents that resulted in heavy bleeding.

When Ailes was diagnosed, the life expectancy of a boy with hemophilia was just 11 years. As Ailes noted in his biography, The Loudest Voice in the Room, his family was told that he would die young and he was “told many times I wasn’t going to make it.”

Ailes rebelled against his illness often to his detriment. He once jumped off the roof of his house and ended up in the hospital following heavy bleeding — an incident which led to receiving a blood transfusion from his father’s work colleague and being suspended upside down to prevent his blood from pooling.

Throughout adulthood, Ailes suffered terribly from joint pain brought on from childhood bleeds but would work through the pain. According to heavy.com, he predicted his own death in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2013, saying he believed he only had between six and 10 years left to live. Sadly for Ailes, he didn’t make it that long.

MORE: Prognosis and life expectancy for people living with hemophilia.

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