Tucker Carlson told his fans that his family suffered a tragic loss this week, asking for privacy and promising to return to his popular show as soon as he is able.

In a heartfelt obituary, Carlson, 55, wrote that his father, Richard Warner Carlson, passed away on Monday at the age of 84. He had been struggling with an extended period of illness for six weeks while resting at his home in Boca Raton, Florida.

“He refused all painkillers to the end and left this world with dignity and clarity, holding the hands of his children with his dogs at his feet,” Carlson wrote on X.

According to the former Fox News star, the elder Carlson’s wife, Patricia, had just passed 16 months before he died.

“He mourned her every day,” the obituary reads.

Richard Carlson’s colorful life was covered at length by his son, who wrote that by the age of 17, he had been arrested for grand theft auto and thrown out of high school twice before enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps. He worked as a sea cargo merchant and later as an investigative reporter, scaling back on his profession only after being badly injured in the 1965 Los Angeles Watts riots.

Recalling childhood memories of his father, Carlson wrote, “He threw himself into raising his boys, whom he often brought with him on reporting trips. At home, he educated them during three-hour dinners on topics that ranged from the French Revolution to Bolshevik Russia, PG Wodehouse, the history of the American Indian, and, always, the eternal and unchanging nature of people.

“He was a free thinker and a compulsive book reader, including at red lights. He left a library of thousands of books, most dog-eared and filled with marginalia. His reading and life experiences convinced him that God is real. He had an outlaw spirit tempered by decency.”

Carlson credited his father with inspiring him to pursue journalism, a career that has only climbed higher since he left Fox News under inauspicious circumstances.

“Richard W. Carlson is survived by his sons, Tucker and Buckley, his beloved daughter-in-law Susie, and five grandchildren. He was the toughest human being anyone in his family ever knew, and also the kindest and most loyal. RIP,” the post concludes.

Conservative beliefs run deep in the Carlson family. Tucker’s brother Buckley has worked as a communications manager and political operative within the Republican Party. His son, also named Buckley, in January joined the White House press team for Vice President J.D. Vance, according to Newsweek.

The up-and-coming staffer is one of Tucker’s four children. Buckley married his second wife, Kelsey Kilgore, in May 2023.