Did Bret Baier announce he would "halt all treatment" for his son Paul? No, that's not true: A FOX News spokesperson told Lead Stories this claim is false. Baier has made no such statement that he decided to "halt all treatment" for his son Paul, who was born with five congenital heart defects and had emergency open heart surgery in 2024. The story, from a fake news site, was promoted by a Facebook page managed from Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Myanmar.
The claim appeared in an October 28, 2025 post on Facebook account @ShreetamaRoy (archived here). It opened:
BREAKDOWN LIVE: Bret Baier Halts ALL Treatment for Son Paul: "Time to Let Him Be at PEACE."
"HEARTBREAKING ANNOUNCEMENT: Fox News anchor Bret Baier broke down in tears on air as he delivered the most devastating news of his life: After receiving the latest critical diagnosis for his son Paul's severe heart condition, he will HALT ALL medical treatments.The emotional decision came with a single, wrenching explanation: 'It's time to let him be at peace.' This raw, unprecedented moment of profound love and letting go has stunned the nation. Click now to read the full, urgent, and deeply personal statement from the anchor."
This is what the image looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Image source: Facebook account @Shreeta screenshot taken by Lead Stories)
Lead Stories reached out to the television host for a comment and a FOX News spokesperson told Lead Stories via email on October 30, 2025, "this claim is false."
Baier spoke about his son Paul, telling People magazine (archived here) that he was born with five congenital heart defects and that he had emergency surgery in 2024. In that June 2025 People article, Baier did not ever say that the family had decided to "halt all medical treatments," nor did he say, "It's time to let him be at peace," as the post on Facebook claimed. The images used in the Facebook post were published on People magazine with a credit to the Baier family.
The post has a link to a news article on a website that is filled with spam and popups and that presents text as images instead of text, which could thwart automated plagiarism detection tools. The article makes the same claims as the post, that Baier and the family announced they had decided to "halt all treatment" for Paul. There is no evidence offered, including clips from Baier's show or video of Baier making such a statement.
Lead Stories ran the text on the Facebook post through AI detection tools on GPTZero.me and the results said that snippet was 100% likely written by AI, as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: GPTZero website screenshot taken by Lead Stories)
Had Baier made such an announcement on air about his son, it would have been major news. A Google search (archived here) found no actual news reports of Baier making the announcement the family had decided to "halt all treatment" for Paul. Similarly, the Yahoo! News index of partner news sites and news services (archived here) turned up no legitimate news reports that the FOX News host had made the devastating announcement.
The page transparency tab of the "Shreetama Roy" Facebook page (archived here) indicates it is being managed from Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Myanmar as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: Facebook account @Shreeta screenshot taken by Lead Stories)
The Vietnam origin does not, in and of itself, prove the post is fake, but Lead Stories has debunked many other fake stories originating from Facebook pages managed overseas and linking to low-quality fly-by-night websites, which could be characterized as "made-for-advertising" or MFA sites (archived here).
