Fox News host Jesse Watters found himself in an awkward position on Monday, October 20, 2025, when he revealed during a broadcast of “The Five” that his own mother had joined millions of demonstrators at the massive “No Kings” rally that swept across the nation two days earlier. The admission came as Watters and his co-hosts discussed the weekend protests, which organizers estimated drew approximately seven million participants across 2,700 cities on Saturday, October 18, 2025.
“I know my mom was there. Can you believe my mom was there? Sometimes I think I was adopted,” Watters stated during the program. His mother, Anne Purvis, a child psychologist and staunch Democrat, has long been a source of political friction with her conservative son, whose support for President Donald Trump frequently clashes with her liberal values.
The 47-year-old television personality did not let his mother’s participation soften his criticism of the demonstrations. During both “The Five” and his later primetime program, Watters dismissed the protesters as ineffective and confused, arguing that the various liberal movements during the Trump era have ultimately harmed Democrats politically. He suggested that protesters had lost power in Washington and described their continued opposition to Trump as an unhealthy obsession.
Watters went on to claim that most rally attendees had no understanding of why they were demonstrating, though he acknowledged his mother as an exception to this characterization. He compared the protesters’ reaction to Trump to an addiction, suggesting they experienced brief bursts of energy but suffered long-term negative consequences. The host also accused Democrats of hypocrisy, arguing they actually favor government control despite protesting against what they perceive as authoritarian tendencies.
The weekend demonstrations represented potentially the largest single-day protest in American history, with independent estimates ranging from 4.5 million to 6.5 million participants. Those figures would rival or exceed the 3.3 million to 5.6 million people who attended the 2017 Women’s March, which also opposed Trump. Saturday’s protests drew celebrities including Pedro Pascal, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Cusack, Spike Lee, Ben Stiller, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Demonstrators carried signs reading “For the Epsteinth time… No Kings,” “He’s more burger than king,” and “Impeach Trump again,” mocking what they described as the president’s king-like behavior. Many protesters wore colorful costumes, including inflatable animal suits that became iconic during previous anti-ICE demonstrations in Portland, Oregon. Organizers characterized the rallies as overwhelmingly peaceful, though scattered reports of violence and arrests emerged, particularly in Portland and Chicago where crowds gathered outside Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities.
Preliminary data collected by American University researchers indicated that nearly 90 percent of No Kings participants identified with the political left. The typical attendee was described as an educated white woman in her forties, according to Axios reporting on the research findings.
The political divide between Watters and his mother has provided fodder for his programs over the years. He previously featured a segment called “Mom Texts” where he read aloud critical messages from Purvis during broadcasts. In July 2023, during his first night replacing Tucker Carlson, she advised him to avoid conspiracy rabbit holes and to seek solutions rather than fanning flames. She also suggested he take less interest in other people’s bodies.
The strained relationship between mother and son became particularly apparent around holidays. In 2024, Watters revealed he had not been invited to Thanksgiving dinner following Trump’s election victory, with his mother citing a scheduling situation and lack of space. He told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2018 that Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings during the Obama administration had been difficult, but that he managed to clear out the entire Thanksgiving table with his Trump praise after the 2016 election.
Protesters at Saturday’s rallies cited various motivations for their participation, including opposition to immigration enforcement raids, concerns about visa revocations for foreigners who allegedly mocked conservative commentator Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and the temporary suspension of comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s ABC late-night show after comments about Kirk’s killer. Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr, appointed by Trump, had announced he was considering an investigation into Kimmel and the network.
Trump responded to the protests by insisting he was not a king, while also posting an artificial intelligence-generated video showing himself wearing a crown and flying a fighter jet labeled “KING TRUMP” that bombed No Kings protesters. The president later suggested that networks giving him negative press coverage could face revocation of their broadcast licenses.
