Remembering Flo Anthony: The Trailblazing Voice of "Go With The Flo"
The gossip world lost one of its true pioneers this week. Florence "Flo" Anthony, the syndicated columnist, radio host, and author who spent four decades breaking celebrity news and breaking down doors for Black journalists, died on August 6, 2026. She was 74.
For those of us who've spent our careers in entertainment journalism, Flo Anthony wasn't just a name in a byline — she was proof of what was possible. Long before "content creator" was a job title, Flo was building a multimedia brand of her own: newspaper columns, syndicated radio, television commentary, and books, all under one unmistakable voice.
From the Boxing World to the Newsroom
Anthony's path to gossip royalty didn't start in a newsroom. A graduate of Howard University, she got her start as a publicist for boxing legends including Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, and Michael Spinks. That world stayed close to her heart — she and Spinks began dating in 1987 and, after nearly four decades together, married in a courthouse ceremony in New York City on January 6, 2026.
She pivoted into entertainment journalism in the mid-1980s and quickly became a barrier-breaker: the first African American reporter to work the gossip column at the New York Post, and the first African American columnist at The National Examiner. In an industry that rarely handed Black women a seat at the table — let alone a byline on its biggest gossip pages — Flo Anthony took her seat and made room for others to follow.
"Go With The Flo"
Her weekly column, "Go With The Flo," became a fixture at the New York Amsterdam News starting in 2001, and her byline also appeared in the Philadelphia Sunday Sun, the Columbus Times, and the New York Daily News. She served as publisher and editor-in-chief of Black Noir Magazine and editor-in-chief of Black Elegance Magazine.
On air, she reached millions daily. Through her own company, Dottie Media Group LLC, Anthony hosted the nationally syndicated "Gossip To Go With Flo" and "Flo Anthony's Big Apple Buzz," which aired in roughly 20 markets. Her television resume was just as deep, with appearances on Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition, The Insider, and a stint as contributor and later co-host of E! Entertainment's The Gossip Show.
Over the course of her career, Anthony broke a staggering list of exclusives — from the marriages of Mike Tyson and Robin Givens, Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, and John McEnroe and Tatum O'Neal, to the news that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were adopting.
She was also a published novelist, releasing her debut "Keeping Secrets Telling Lies" in 2000, before signing with Zane's Strebor Books for "Deadly Stuff Players" in 2013 and its sequel, "One Last Deadly Play," in 2016.
A Legacy Beyond the Byline
What set Flo apart in a field too often dismissed as frivolous was her insistence that gossip journalism was still journalism. She didn't see herself as a rumor-monger — she saw herself as a reporter who happened to specialize in the lives of the famous, and she held herself to the standard of getting the story right.
CNN entertainment journalist Lisa Respers France spoke for many of us in the field when she wrote that she felt deeply indebted to Anthony as a Black woman covering pop culture, calling her essential to the culture itself.
Word of her passing came from Jack Hirsch, biographer and collaborator on Anthony's authorized biography of her husband, "Michael 'Jinx' Spinks," released earlier this year. Hirsch said Anthony had recently shared that she was battling cancer.
For those of us building independent platforms in entertainment media today, Flo Anthony's career is a reminder of what's always been true: this work — chasing the story, building the brand, showing up in rooms that weren't built for you — has always taken guts. She had them in abundance.
Rest in power, Flo.