Pulitzer-prize winning analyst and best-selling author, Charles Krauthammer, has died. He was 68
Famed Pulitzer-prize winning Fox commentator, Charles Krauthammer, has died. He was 68.
His death comes just two weeks after he revealed he didn’t have much longer to live in his battle with cancer on June 8.
‘I have been uncharacteristically silent these past ten months. I had thought that silence would soon be coming to an end, but I’m afraid I must tell you now that fate has decided on a different course for me,’ he said in his open letter.
‘My doctors tell me their best estimate is that I have only a few weeks left to live. This is the final verdict. My fight is over,’ he added.
The longtime Fox News contributor gave the harrowing announcement that his cancer had returned despite undergoing surgery last August when he a cancerous tumor in his abdomen removed.
It was a successful surgery, but he was left in the hospital for months fighting ‘secondary complications’.
Krauthammer had been absent from the spotlight for nearly a year, taking a break from Fox News’ Special Report as well as the Washington Post, where he has worked since 1984.
The longtime Fox News contributor gave the harrowing announcement that his cancer had returned despite undergoing surgery last August, when he had a cancerous tumor in his abdomen removed
The political analyst (pictured in 2015) had been absent from the spotlight for nearly a year, taking a break from Fox News’ Special Report as well as the Washington Post, where he has worked since 1984
Krauthammer, a New Yorker, was born in 1950 and made a name for himself in writing and medicine.
He received his bachelor’s degree in political science and economics at McGill University in Montreal and went on to study politics at Oxford, where he met his wife, Robyn.
Krauthammer then switched gears to study medicine at Harvard Medical School.
It was during his first year there at the age of 22 he got into a diving board accident that left him permanently paralyzed from the neck down.
He has used a wheelchair ever since.
‘I hit my head on the bottom of the pool. The amazing thing is that there wasn’t even a cut on my head. It just hit at precisely the angle where all the force was transmitted to one spot and that is the cervical vertebra which severed the spinal cord,’ he said in a Fox interview in 2013.
Krauthammer (center) was an influential voice among Republicans, through his syndicated column and his appearances on Fox News and elsewhere
Krauthammer (pictured in 1985), a New Yorker, was born in 1950 and made a name for himself in writing and medicine. He is survived by his wife and son, Daniel
‘The second it happened, I knew exactly what happened. I knew why I wasn’t able to move. And I knew what that meant,’ he added.
After 14 months of recovery he returned to Harvard and graduated in the class of 1975 as a psychiatrist.
Krauthammer later moved to DC for psychiatric research while penning essays for The New Republic.
He then joined the political magazine as a writer and editor.
In 1984 he joined the Washington Post where his critical column awarded him the Commentary Pulitzer Prize in 1987.
Krauthammer was an influential voice among Republicans, through his syndicated column and his appearances on Fox News and elsewhere.
He has been married to his wife Robyn Krauthammer for 44 years and has a 32-year-old son, Daniel Krauthammer, who survive him.
In his free time, Krauthammer enjoyed baseball and chess.