Was Jon-Bernard Kairouz confronted about his appearance in pictures from newly released Epstein files while being interviewed on Fox News? No, that's not true: The viral video did not show a real Fox News segment. In what appears to be a digitally produced clip, Kairouz, who is a comedian, is seen making a satirical sketch. Kairouz is not mentioned in the Epstein files as of this date6.
The story originated from a post (archived here) that was published on TikTok on December 21, 2025. In a clip that resembled a TV program, the lower banner with the Fox News logo read:
JON-BERNARD KAIROUZ: CELEBRITYNEW EPSTEIN FILES RELEASED
Every celebrity right now after the new 'Epstein Files' #news
This is what the video looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at tiktok.com/@jonbernardk)
The clip featured the following exchange:
HOST: You weren't ever on Jeffrey Epstein's jet? Were you?
GUEST: No, no, I've never met Jeffrey Epstein. I've never been on his plane. I want to put these rumors to bed. I've never met Jeffrey Epstein. I don't know him. I don't want to be connected to this.
HOST: Well, these images have just been released, and it clearly shows you pictured with Jeffrey Epstein multiple times. What's going on there?
GUEST: I've never seen those images before. This is the first time I'm seeing them. Now I recall I may have flown on his plane once, but he was just a financier. He was just a businessman, and we were just doing business.
The account that initially posted the video, however, belonged to a comedian (archived here) who shares his sketches online:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of page at tiktok.com/@jonbernardk)
Searches on Google and on the Fox News website (archived here) showed no mention of Jon-Bernard Kairouz's name across the materials published or aired by this specific network:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of search page at foxnews.com)
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of page at foxnews.com)
The Epstein files, released by the U.S. Department of Justice, can be found here. The joke from the video on TikTok seemed to refer to the most recent batch of documents that was made accessible to the public on December 19, 2025 (archived here).
A search across those materials shows no mentions of the comedian's name, either:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of page at justice.gov/epstein)
The clip on TikTok reused an old graphic element, the promo in the lower right corner, which also clearly proved that Fox News couldn't have aired an interview with Jon-Bernard Kairouz about 2025 events back in 2024.
The picture to the right of the lower banner in the clip reviewed in this fact check read:
Hannity
EXCLUSIVE
DONALD TRUMP TOWN HALL
TODAY 9 PM ET.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at tiktok.com/@jonbernardk)
Searching for the originals of images in the comedian's post, Lead Stories found that a similar-looking picture appeared on Fox News on August 30, 2024. It advertised a then-upcoming Trump town hall scheduled on September 4, 2024:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of page at archive.org)
On August 30, 2024, however, Jesse Watters didn't host his show. He was substituted by Pete Hegseth, then a Fox News host:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of page at archive.org)
On September 4, 2024, another poster announcing the event appeared on the Jesse Watters Primetime show. But that image had a different design that showed the faces of both Trump and Hannity:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of page at archive.org)
That day's Watters show did not mention Epstein's files. In other words, even the left side of the video purporting to show the Fox News host was not just outdated but also likely inauthentic.
