Fox News issued a rare apology after Shark Tank star and MAGA figure Kevin O’Leary made claims that were untrue.
The roughly 45-second apology has aired across four Fox News and Fox Business programs over the past four days, and relates to O’Leary’s appearance on the network in May, during which he discussed his plan to build a data center in Utah and claimed that groups opposing it were funded by the Chinese Communist Party.
“Kevin O’Leary appeared as a guest on the show on May 24 and discussed the ongoing controversy surrounding his planned data center project in Utah,” Big Weekend Show host Johnny Joey Jones said, reading the apology on Saturday.
“He made certain claims relating to the opponents of his project,” Jones added, saying that O’Leary has “now corrected the record.”
The Canadian businessman disclosed plans to build a data center campus in Utah in February. The initial proposal suggested the development could span up to 40,000 acres, but it quickly faced backlash from residents and organizations, including the Alliance for a Better Utah, which opposed the project.
O’Leary appeared on several news networks and claimed the organization was funded by Chinese dark-money interests, later acknowledging in a statement on Thursday that the remarks were not true.
In the statement posted to X, O’Leary said he had “no evidence that Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, Gabrielle Finlayson, Taylor Knuth, or Josh Kanter are funded by China or the Chinese Communist Party.”
In a similar statement, Fox News Media also said it was not aware of any evidence supporting O’Leary’s claims and issued an apology for the error.
Media analyst Brian Stelter suggested on X that Fox News’ rare apology came “in response to legal threats from people who were attacked by Kevin O’Leary.”
Fox News Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
O’Leary has refused to back down on his proposed data center project focused on AI development, but has already been forced to scale it down to 20,000 acres.
This isn’t the first time the Canadian software entrepreneur turned TV personality—who goes by the nickname “Mr. Wonderful”—has been in the media spotlight for his conduct.
In May, he was called a “d---” to his face during a tense CNN panel after repeatedly interrupting Black panelist Bakari Sellers during a discussion on a Supreme Court ruling that enabled Alabama to eliminate one of its two majority-Black congressional districts.
