Megyn Kelly facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Megyn Kelly
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Kelly in 2024
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Megyn Marie Kelly
November 18, 1970 Champaign, Illinois, U.S.
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| Other names | Megyn Kendall |
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| Years active | 2003–present |
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| Political party | Independent |
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| Children | 3 |
Megyn Marie Kelly (/ˈmeɪɡən/; born November 18, 1970) is an American journalist, attorney, political commentator, and media personality. She currently hosts The Megyn Kelly Show, a talk show and podcast that airs daily on Sirius XM's Triumph channel and has over 3.2 million subscribers on YouTube. Kelly previously worked at Fox News from 2004 to 2017, where she hosted programs including America Live and The Kelly File, and at NBC News from 2017 to 2018, where she anchored Megyn Kelly Today. In 2014, she was named one of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of 2014.
During her time at Fox News, Kelly hosted America Live from 2010 to 2013 and co-anchored America's Newsroom with Bill Hemmer. She also moderated several presidential primary debates during the 2016 and 2024 election cycles. Her show The Kelly File, which aired from 2013 to 2017, focused on breaking news and political events and was one of the network’s top-rated programs. After leaving Fox News in January 2017, Kelly joined NBC News to host Megyn Kelly Today, a segment of the Today show that featured interviews and current events. She left NBC in January 2019 and later transitioned to independent media with her podcast and online platforms.
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Early life and education
Kelly was born on November 18, 1970 in Champaign, Illinois, to Edward Francis Kelly, Ed.D., who taught in the School of Education at the State University of New York at Albany, and Linda (née DeMaio), a homemaker. She grew up with an older sister, Suzanne (1964–2022) and an older brother, Pete (born c. 1965). She is of Italian and German descent on her mother's side and Irish descent on her father's. She was raised Catholic. Her father died of a heart attack in 1985 when she was 15 years old. She also has a step-sister and a step-brother from her mother's second marriage, to Peter Kirwan.
Kelly attended Tecumseh Elementary School in suburban Syracuse, New York. When she was 9, her family moved to Delmar, New York, a suburb of Albany, where she attended Bethlehem Central High School. She obtained an undergraduate degree in political science from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 1992 and earned a J.D. from Albany Law School in 1995.
Kelly was an associate attorney in the Chicago office of law firm Bickel & Brewer LLP. In fall 1996, she co-wrote an article, "The Conflicting Roles of Lawyer as Director", for the American Bar Association's journal, Litigation. She later worked at Jones Day for nine years, where one of her clients was the credit bureau Experian.
Media career
Early career
In 2003, Kelly moved to Washington, D.C., where she was hired by the ABC affiliate WJLA-TV as a general assignment reporter. She covered national and local events, including live coverage of the confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John G. Roberts, the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, and the 2004 presidential election. CNN president Jonathan Klein later said he regretted not hiring Kelly as a reporter at the beginning of her career, because she was "the one talent you'd want to have from somewhere else".
2004–2017: Fox News
In 2004, Kelly applied for a job at Fox News. She contributed legal segments for Special Report with Brit Hume and hosted her own legal segment, Kelly's Court, during Weekend Live. She appeared in a weekly segment on The O'Reilly Factor and occasionally filled in for Greta Van Susteren on On the Record, where most of her reporting focused on legal and political matters. She occasionally contributed as an anchor, but more often as a substitute anchor on weekends. On February 1, 2010, Kelly began hosting her own two-hour afternoon show, America Live, which replaced The Live Desk. She was a guest panelist on Fox News' late-night satire program Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld. In 2010, viewership for America Live increased by 20%, averaging 1,293,000 viewers, and increased by 4% in the 25–54 age demographic, averaging 268,000 viewers. In December 2010, Kelly hosted a New Year's Eve special with Bill Hemmer.
Kelly received media attention for her coverage of the results of the 2012 United States presidential election. On election night, Fox News' decision desk projected that Obama would win the state of Ohio along with a second term after part of the results had been released. Republican operative Karl Rove objected to this projection, whereupon Kelly - with camera following - dramatically walked backstage to the decision desk and spoke with them; she also asked Rove, "Is this just math that you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better? Or is this real?" Kelly left America Live in July 2013 and took maternity leave. That October she began hosting a new nightly program, The Kelly File. The Kelly File was occasionally the channel's ratings leader, topping The O'Reilly Factor.
In December 2013, Kelly commented on a Slate article on The Kelly File: "For all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white, but this person is just arguing that maybe we should also have a black Santa," adding, "But Santa is what he is, and just so you know, we're just debating this because someone wrote about it." Kelly also said that Jesus was a white man later in the segment. Soon after, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Rachel Maddow, Josh Barro, and others satirized her remarks. Two days later, she said on the air that her original comments were "tongue-in-cheek", and that the skin color of Jesus is "far from settled".
In the Republican Party presidential debate on August 6, 2015, Kelly asked then-presidential candidate Donald Trump whether a man of his temperament ought to be elected president, noting that he has called various women insulting names in the past. Kelly's moderating generated a range of media and political reactions and her professionalism was criticized by Trump. Kelly responded to Trump's criticism by saying she would not "apologize for doing good journalism". Trump declined to attend the Iowa January 28 debate that she moderated. After the debate and off-camera, Ted Cruz said that Kelly had referred to Trump off-camera as "Voldemort", though Fox News denied it. Bill Maher complimented Kelly as being "so much better" than the candidates who attended the January 28 debate and argued that she was a more viable candidate for the Republican nomination.
In an interview with CBS News Sunday Morning, Kelly reflected that she was disappointed with the lack of support she received from coworker Bill O'Reilly and CNN, the latter airing a Trump event the same time as the debate. In April, at her request, Kelly met with Trump at Trump Tower, having "a chance to clear the air". The following month, after interviewing Trump and being met with mixed reception, she expressed interest in doing another one with him. In June, she criticized Trump for his claims against judge Gonzalo P. Curiel's impartiality.
In March 2016, it was announced that Kelly would host a one-hour prime time special on the Fox network wherein she would interview celebrities from the worlds of "politics, entertainment, and other areas of human interest". The special aired in May 2016, which was a sweeps month. It acquired 4.8 million viewers, but placed third in the ratings. Gabriel Sherman wrote of the stakes for Kelly as "high", elaborating that with Kelly being in the final year of her contract with Fox and having confirmed her ambitions, "[t]he special was essentially a public interview for her next job."
2017–2018: NBC News
In late 2016, with her Fox contract in its final months, Kelly was rumored to be actively considering moving to other news networks. In January 2017, The New York Times reported that she would leave Fox News for a "triple role" at NBC News, which would include roles as a daytime talk show, hosting a forthcoming Sunday-night newsmagazine, as well as becoming a correspondent for major news events and political coverage. She departed Fox News on January 6, 2017, after the last episode of The Kelly File was aired. In January 2017 People, quoting an unspecified source, reported that Kelly remained under a non-compete clause with Fox until July 2017, which would prevent her from working for a competitor until the clause expired, unless it would be canceled prior.
On June 2, 2017, Kelly interviewed Russian president Vladimir Putin, first in a panel discussion she moderated at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and later in a one-on-one interview for the premiere episode of NBC's Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly, which aired June 4, 2017. Kelly's daytime talk show, Megyn Kelly Today, premiered in September 2017.
Kelly was being paid reportedly between $15 million and $20 million a year at NBC. After an initial run of eight episodes in the summer of 2017, NBC decided to bring her newsmagazine show Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly back for summer 2018 after a hiatus for football and the Winter Olympics, but only periodically. However, this return never materialized. Instead, Kelly continued to report stories for Dateline NBC during the summer of 2018, continuing her work for the show which she joined in 2017.
On October 23, 2018, Kelly was criticized for on-air remarks she made on Megyn Kelly Today related to the appropriateness of blackface as part of Halloween costumes. She recollected that "when I was a kid, that was okay as long as you were dressing up like a character", and defended Luann de Lesseps's use of skin darkening spray to wear a Diana Ross Halloween costume. After receiving backlash for her comments, Kelly issued an internal email apologizing for the remarks later that day. On October 26, 2018, NBC canceled Megyn Kelly Today. It had been reported that Kelly was considering ending the program to focus on her role as a correspondent. Her employment was terminated on January 11, 2019, and she was paid the $30 million due for the remainder of her contract.
2021–present: Sirius XM
Kelly announced the launch of Devil May Care Media, her media production company, on September 10, 2020, with a podcast, The Megyn Kelly Show. Its first episode premiered on September 28, 2020. On July 6, 2021, it was announced that the podcast would move to Sirius XM on September 7, 2021, to broadcast weekdays at 12 noon ET on the talk radio channel Triumph, along with a video simulcast available to Sirius XM subscribers.
Since transitioning to independent media, The Megyn Kelly Show has experienced significant growth. In July 2023, the show’s YouTube channel attracted 116.8 million views, surpassing the viewership of major news outlets during the same period, including NBC News (78 million) and CBS News (83 million). As of January 2025, Kelly’s YouTube channel alone has over 3.2 million subscribers, and it has become one of the top ten podcasts in the U.S. Despite running with a small team. Her show has gained significant traction, positioning her as a prominent figure in the digital media space.
On December 6, 2023, Kelly returned to the moderator desk to co-host the fourth Republican primary debate on NewsNation, alongside Elizabeth Vargas and Eliana Johnson. This marked her first return to moderating a presidential debate since her time at Fox News, where she famously moderated the first Republican Party presidential debate in 2015. The debate, which was hosted by independent media figures, marked a shift away from traditional establishment media, reflecting a broader trend within the Republican National Committee (RNC) to embrace alternative media outlets. The event took place without the participation of Donald Trump, the leading Republican candidate at the time.
On November 4, 2024, the day before the 2024 presidential election, Kelly publicly endorsed Donald Trump at a rally in Pittsburgh. In her speech, she expressed support for his policies on women's rights, border security, immigration, and transgender athletes in women’s sports, asserting he would be a protector of women. Afterward, Kelly posted a selfie with Trump on X, captioned, “God bless him. Go vote for him!” This endorsement marked a notable shift, as Kelly and Trump had previously been at odds during the 2016 campaign, when he referred to her as "nasty" following a widely publicized debate exchange.
On January 17, 2025, Kelly stated on her show that she would be attending Trump's second inauguration on January 20th, and would be delivering remarks on stage at his rally the night before.
Political views
Politically, Kelly identifies as an independent, and told Variety in 2015 that she had voted for both Democrats and Republicans.
In response to the 2018 Parkland shooting, Megyn Kelly criticized lawmakers for their failure to pass meaningful gun reform, expressing frustration with the cycle of sorrow following mass shootings without real action. She argued that politicians lack the courage to push through change and that most proposed reforms would be ineffective. Kelly also pointed to the NRA's significant influence as a major barrier to reform, emphasizing the need for both politicians and the public to demand serious action.
In June 2023, Kelly explained that her opinion had shifted from supporting "preferred pronouns" to opposing them, citing concerns about their connection to gender-affirming care for minors. She argued that such policies harmed women’s rights and children’s safety. Kelly stated she would no longer use preferred pronouns but would still approach transgender individuals with empathy. She also criticized the inclusion of transgender women in women’s spaces and sports, as well as medical intervention for transgender youth.
In April 2024, Kelly revealed that she voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election and would vote for him again in 2024 despite their turbulent relationship in the past. She explained that her decision was driven particularly by issues like trans ideology and cultural changes that were affecting her children. Kelly shared that her vote was based on principles, not personal preference, stating, "It was about my concern for this country, my children, what was happening, in particular, in this culture lane but in other lanes as well." Her vote, she said, was motivated by a desire to protect traditional values and preserve fundamental freedoms.
In October 2024, after Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, citing Tim Walz's LGBTQ policies, Kelly criticized her during an on stage interview with Tucker Carlson. She accused Swift of "alienating half her fan base" by taking a side in a hotly contested presidential election, adding, about his LGBTQ policies, "...and that is what Taylor Swift just endorsed for your children. So screw you, Taylor Swift."
Writing
In February 2016, Kelly signed an agreement with HarperCollins to write an autobiography scheduled for release later that year, in a deal worth more than $10 million. The book, titled Settle for More, was released on November 15, 2016.
Accolades
- In 2009, Kelly received an award from Childhelp for her work as a Fox News anchor covering the subject of child abuse.
- Kelly was honored with an Alumni Achievement Award from the Albany Law School in 2010 for her 15th class reunion.
- She was included in the 2014 Time list of the 100 most influential people.
- On September 26, 2015, Kelly was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Bethlehem Central High School, her alma mater.
Personal life
Kelly was first married in 2001 to Daniel Kendall, an anesthesiologist, in a Catholic ceremony. Their marriage ended in divorce in 2006. In March 2024, Kelly disclosed that she was undergoing the Catholic annulment process for her marriage with Kendall.
In 2008, Kelly married Douglas Brunt, then president and CEO of the cybersecurity firm Authentium. Brunt later transitioned to a career as a full-time writer and novelist. The couple has three children: Son Yates (born 2009), daughter Yardley (born 2011), and son Thatcher (born 2013). The family resides in Connecticut during the school year, and spends summers at their waterfront home in New Jersey.
Kelly is a lifelong Catholic. She has appeared at a fundraiser for the conservative group Moms for Liberty. She has been open about her health challenges, revealing that she has Raynaud's disease.
In 2022, Kelly shared the loss of her older sister, Suzanne Crossley, who passed away from a heart attack. Crossley left behind three children and a grandson.
See also
- New Yorkers in journalism
