Fox News anchor Bret Baier gushes over his family as he gears up to sit down ... trends now

Fox News anchor Bret Baier's older son Paul, 15, has already had four open heart surgeries.

But now he's 6'3'', full of life – and this month beat his dad at a round of golf for the first time.

The Special Report anchor and his two sons spoke about the medical struggles the family has been through in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com this week, ahead of Father's Day.

Baier also spilled on the recent tumult at Fox, including his 'ordeal' in the legal battle with Dominion Voting Systems that cost the network $788 million.

And the news anchor described how he is preparing for his live sit-down with former president Donald Trump – pre-empting the GOP candidate 'playing to the crowd', and gaming out what he will say about his recent indictment and his plan for the country.

But the newsman said that after dealing with war, politics and high-stakes interviews, it is his family that 'grounds' him.

'I come home and they ground me. It's not about the big moment. It's about the moments at home,' he said.

Baier said he and his wife Amy are full of 'gratitude' for their two sons, Paul, 15, and Daniel, 12, and spoke about how Paul has had to fight for his life right from birth due to a serious heart condition.

'It turned out his heart was essentially pumping the wrong way. He had five significant heart defects, and if he didn't get surgery in the first few days, he would die,' Baier said. 'So we went from the highest highs to the lowest lows in a really short time.'

'He had a really big open heart surgery 10 days into life. The surgeon reworked a heart the size of a walnut and arteries the size of angel hair pasta, in order for his heart to pump the right way.

'The fix was a donated baby aorta that kind of looked like a macaroni noodle that connected his heart. It didn't grow with him, so he had to have another surgery at 10 months, another at six years, and another at 13 and a half.

'He's now had four open heart surgeries, 10 angioplasties, and a stomach surgery. We spent a lot of time in the hospital. And he's doing great. He's now 6'3'. I look up to him, literally.

'Hopefully that's the end of heart surgeries and he's very healthy.'

Baier said one marker of his son's full recovery was beating him for the first time at golf this month.

'Me and my dad play a lot,' Paul told DailyMail.com. 'I beat him last week by one stroke. He gave a competitive game.'

'It was a really big moment,' Bret said. 'I was very happy that he did that. But I was really trying hard not to lose, and I lost.'

Daniel, meanwhile, is a fiend on the basketball court and lacrosse field, his dad said.

Paul said family life for the Baiers often revolves around sports, and they enjoy getting to spend time with their dad every evening after his daily news show.

'We're very competitive. We play a lot of sports and do a lot of matches. We like to watch movies a lot. Every night we watch a movie when he gets home,' the 15-year-old said. 'We watched Good Will Hunting a few weeks ago and I really like that.'

Bret said their experience bringing Paul through four nail-biting surgeries has led them all to do charity work in support of children's health care.

'We spent a lot of time at Children's National in Washington, DC. My wife is now Foundation Board Chair. We believe that is our cause,' he said.

Bret married his wife Amy, 45, in 2004. The mother of two, originally from Chicago, takes the lead with the family's charity efforts, helping raise more than $10.7 million for Children's National Medical Center at one star-studded ball in 2014, and serving as a board member for the hospital's foundation.

She and her parents also personally donated $1million to the hospital, which treated their then-newborn son, in 2008.

Like Bret, Amy is religious, and studied at Southern Methodist University.

Though Bret keeps his own political views close to his chest, his wife has previously registered as a Democrat, Washington DC voter registration records show, though her most recent registration declares 'no party' affiliation.

'The first thing we started to do was bringing gifts to Children's Hospital around Christmas,' Paul added. 'Talking to those kids was really awesome for me.

'We raise money for charity, for research, and for trying to help kids that can't afford surgeries. We do the Race for Every Child, the 5k, every year. So we try to do our best.

'I talk at these events, and it's awesome to hear stories from other kids,' the teen added. 'Telling them that they're going to make it through and that it's just part of their journey, that they're gonna come out a better person after it.'

Paul said he is now considering a career as an entrepreneur in medicine – but added that as a high school freshman 'I still have a long way to go before I choose a path.'

Baier said that neither kid will likely be following his footsteps into the media: 'There's no wish for journalists here.'

The Fox host, 52, said he began at the network with little more than 'a fax machine and a cell phone' running its Atlanta bureau in 1998.

But when he drove up to Arlington, Virginia to report in front of the burning Pentagon in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in 2001, he was launched into his first big break covering the military for the next five years.

Baier said he's since been sent to 74 countries, including 11 trips to Afghanistan and 13 to Iraq as Fox's Pentagon correspondent.

He recalled one

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