Meet Rachel Campos-Duffy, the MTV reality star turned Fox TV host: after rising to fame on 90s TV series The Real World, now she’s known for her conservative, pro-life views – and being a mum to 9 kids

Rachel Campos-Duffy has cemented a name for herself in conservative America as a career woman – all while raising nine children.

Campos-Duffy is a Fox TV host and gained fame through a 90s MTV reality show, but it is her staunch beliefs around family, Christian and pro-life values that keep her in the news.

Here is what you need to know about Campos-Duffy.

Rachel Campos-Duffy was a reality TV star

Rachel Campos-Duffy, 30 years ago, joining MTV’s The Real World: San Francisco show. Photo: @rcamposduffy/Instagram

Before she became a regular on American Broadcasting Company (ABC) talk show The View and later a guest host on Fox News’ Outnumbered, Campos-Duffy, 52, was cast in MTV’s hit reality TV series The Real World: San Francisco in 1994.

It was her reality TV stint that led her to meeting her now husband, Sean Duffy. He was cast in The Real World: Boston in 1997, and both of them were asked to take part in the first season of Road Rules: All Stars in 1998.

Rachel Campos-Duffy (top) with the cast of MTV’s The Real World: San Francisco, who became her roommates. Photo: @rcamposduffy/Instagram

In a Fox News opinion piece last April, Campos-Duffy spoke about how TV and love collided: “We had our lives taped for six months and packaged into 23 heavily edited episodes set to the soundtrack of The Smashing Pumpkins and Counting Crows.”

The couple got married in 1999, with Rachel writing on Facebook that she had told Sean they would get married on one of their first dates.

She’s proud of her heritage

Always family-minded, in March 2021, Rachel Campos-Duffy posted this photo of her parents on their wedding day in 1967. Photo: @rcamposduffy/Instagram

Campos-Duffy was born in 1971 in Tempe, Arizona. Her grandparents emigrated to the US from Mexico and she has openly spoken about how her family battled financially.

In a Facebook post, she said her father worked for the US Air Force for 33 years as it was one of the few “colour-blind American institutions”.

She added that, after work, he would wash dishes at a Chinese restaurant to make extra money.

Campos-Duffy has worked with The Libre Initiative as its national spokesperson, with the organisation focusing on the economic empowerment of the Hispanic community.

She also has a degree in economics from Arizona University and a master’s in international affairs from the University of California, San Diego.

She has nine kids

A festive social media post from the very large family of Rachel Campos-Duffy for Christmas 2020. Photo: @rcamposduffy/Instagram

Rachel and her husband Sean have nine children together. Sean, who is a former Wisconsin congressman, served nearly nine years representing the state’s largest district before resigning, per Fox Business.

According to Washington Post, he resigned after learning that his unborn baby would need heart surgery. That baby is now four years old and, in an appearance on Fox & Friends, Rachel spoke about her youngest daughter Valentina StellaMaris, who has Down’s syndrome.

Sean Duffy, Rachel Campos-Duffy’s husband, with their daughter Valentina. Photo: @rcamposduffy/Instagram

The TV presenter claimed that many children with “Down’s are being exterminated in the womb, and I think that when people get to meet them and see how wonderful they are we are going to see less of that”. Campos-Duffy added that their daughter helped the family to become more tolerant.

Sean Duffy and Rachel Campos-Duffy, Republican power couple

Rachel Campos-Duffy and Sean Duffy sharing a photo for Thanksgiving in November 2023. Photo: @rcamposduffy/Instagram

Rachel and Sean have become known as the “Real World GOP couple”. With Sean’s political stature as a former congressman to Rachel’s high profile on the Fox network, their Republican fan base is strong. In 2021, Rachel was hired as a co-host on Fox & Friends Weekend.

In her 2009 book Stay Home, Stay Happy: 10 Secrets to a Loving At-Home Motherhood though, she wrote about allowing mothers the chance to step away from their careers if their families need them.

Sean Duffy and Rachel Campos-Duffy at a Fox News awards ceremony event, in November 2023. Photo: @rcamposduffy/Instagram

Sean also joined Fox News as a contributor, co-hosting The Bottom Line. He also gives political commentary across the network. The couple regularly do interviews on how they make their marriage work in a busy world and with nine children, with Campos-Duffy writing on Fox News that she found love using a “90s style blueprint” that advocates for less use of technology.

Their daughter Evita Duffy-Alfonso’s rise to fame

The couple’s daughter Evita Duffy-Alfonso has also become well-known in conservative circles for her strong views on the Biden administration, as well as her pro-life and Christian values.

Evita is a writer for Republican-leaning The Federalist and a contributor for Fox News. She also co-founded The Chicago Thinker, a website with “right-leaning reporting from UChicago students”.

In a piece on The Federalist on abortion, Evita claimed: “The genocide of children with Down’s syndrome is a continuation of the eugenics movement that many wrongly assume ended in Nazi Germany.”

She got married at 22 and, in family podcast From the Kitchen Table, The Duffys, she discussed the importance of faith and tradition in marriage.