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Jesse Watters promises to ‘slap’ colleague for not asking astronauts if they ‘hooked up’

The astronauts land on Earth on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft nine months after they were due to return

Steffie Banatvala
Tuesday 01 April 2025 15:52 BST
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Jesse Watters vows to slap colleague for not asking astronauts if they 'hooked up'

Fox News host Jesse Watters criticized his colleague for not asking NASA astronauts whether they hooked up while stranded together in space for nine months.

In response to Bill Hemmer’s interview of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunni Williams, Watters said the question everyone wanted to ask was whether the pair became intimate during their time on the International Space Station (ISS).

“Hemmer’s a great interviewer, but he whiffed,” Watters said on The Five. “The main question that everybody wanted asked was, did they hook up? And he just left it hanging out there.

“I hope there’s a part two to this interview, Hemmer, because next time I see you, I’m going to slap you silly.”

The controversial host’s remark comes after President Donald Trump suggested the pair - who are both married to respective partners - could have fallen in love when they were stranded.

The astronauts landed back on Earth in March on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft after their return flight went awry, leaving them stranded on ISS.

Fox News host Jesse Watters joked that he would ‘slap’ his colleague for not asking the astronauts a personal question
Fox News host Jesse Watters joked that he would ‘slap’ his colleague for not asking the astronauts a personal question (Fox News / Jesse Watters Primetime)

Their stay was nine months longer than expected after technical issues forced their first return craft made by Boeing to leave without them.

The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld weighed in, saying the pair’s body language suggested they did not like each other, while co-host Jessica Tarlov focused on the astronaut’s daily life.

“She even said that he would Zoom into his Sunday church service every week, so they kept some degree of regularity,” Tarlov said.

Despite the ordeal, the astronauts said they felt “nowhere near” abandoned on what should have been an eight-day trip.

“Based on how they were couching this? That we were left and forgotten and all? We were nowhere near any of that,” Wilmore said on Monday.

Williams and

Wilmore also said that they knew things could go wrong on a test flight.

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