Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reveals husband’s furious reaction to media ‘attacks’

Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has candidly revealed how her husband Nicholas Riccio reacted to the media ‘attacks’ she faced throughout her tenure.

Leavitt, 29, appeared as a guest on Fox News host Sean Hannity’s podcast on Tuesday, where she gave a wide-ranging interview about her time working with President Donald Trump, lifting the lid on what it was really like.

Her husband, 61, accompanied her to the set, and though he remained off-camera, Hannity gave him a few nods throughout the episode.

‘You must be so proud of her,’ Hannity said to Leavitt’s husband.

The host of Hang Out with Sean Hannity asked if Riccio wanted to join them on camera, and he said no.

‘He’s the behind-the-scenes supporter, but he’s the best,’ Leavitt said.

‘I couldn’t have done it without my husband and my family,’ she added.

Hannity then asked Riccio if he ever got mad at some of the ‘people in the media’ who would ‘attack’ his wife.

Leavitt answered the question for him, explaining that her husband did, indeed, get mad at times.

‘He does, he says, “How do you be nice to these people? How do you even deal with them?” But he has seen how hard I work,’ Leavitt explained.

Hannity joked that Leavitt would ‘kill’ anyone who was attacking her.

‘Kill them with kindness, that’s what my mom taught me,’ Leavitt quipped. 

She and her husband, Riccio, share daughter Viviana ‘Vivi,’ four months, and son Niko, two. 

Leavitt’s appearance on the podcast came just a few weeks after she retired from her role as press secretary on August 27.

When she announced her departure, she said it was because she wanted to spend more time with her young family. 

‘I think the birth of my second child, as I said in my statement, really just showed me that two children at home deserve and need their mothers 24/7 constant attention and presence,’ Leavitt told News Nation’s Markie Martin during an August appearance on Morning in America. 

‘They are very young. This is a very impressionable time. And of course, we never get these years back with our young kids,’ she explained. 

During the same interview, she also praised her husband, while describing just how much he had sacrificed for their family over the past year.

‘I do have to thank my husband,’ Leavitt told Martin. ‘He has just been an angel and a blessing to me and my kids, really has given up a lot to move to DC, a town he’s unfamiliar with.’

‘He took a step back from his own career to be here for me and support me, so thank you, honey, I love you,’ she said.

She also called working for President Trump the ‘honor and blessing of a lifetime,’ while praising him for being extremely supportive of her and her young family.

Leavitt brought her husband and two kids to her last day on the job, as the family-of-four posed for a photo in front of the White House press podium.

The 29-year-old talked as she held her newborn, Vivi, while her husband stood next to her with their son in his arms.

While in the White House, Leavitt’s age-gap relationship was a big topic of conversation and curiosity, as her husband is 32 years her senior.

She’s previously described their relationship as an ‘atypical love story.’

‘I met my husband during my Congressional Campaign. A mutual friend of ours hosted an event at a restaurant that he owns up in New Hampshire and invited my husband,’ Leavitt explained during a conversation with Megyn Kelly in March 2025.

‘I was speaking. We met and we were acquainted as friends. And then we fell in love.’

When The Megyn Kelly Show host asked if there had been any thought in her mind of the age gap, Leavitt admitted that she had initial doubts about how the difference would impact the relationship.

‘Yes, of course. I mean it’s a very atypical love story but he’s incredible,’ she gushed. ‘He is my greatest supporter, he’s my best friend and he’s my rock.’