Celebrities Who Can't Stand Megyn Kelly

Megyn Kelly has had her fair share of controversies that will continue to haunt her career. For instance, during a 2018 episode of "Megyn Kelly Today," the divisive TV personality admitted that she didn't understand why the modern generation got so up in arms about blackface Halloween costumes because they were considered largely inoffensive when she was young. Kelly only dug a deeper hole by adding that she didn't quite understand why former "Real Housewives of New York" star Luann de Lesseps had been labeled a racist for allegedly darkening her skin color for her own Diana Ross Halloween costume. Needless to say, Kelly's bizarre take sparked tons of backlash. 

Among the critics was "Top Chef" host Padma Lakshmi, who took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to slam Kelly by writing, "I cannot believe the ignorance on this in 2018. You are on national television. You have a responsibility to educate yourself on social issues." Lakshmi added, "This is so damaging." Ultimately, the former Fox News host's disparaging remarks made Kelly one of the many news anchors who disappeared from Today because her show was unceremoniously taken off the air shortly afterward. 

The outspoken journalist continued to stir up trouble following her departure from NBC. During an August 2024 episode of her eponymous SiriusXM show, Kelly started a one-sided beef with CNN news anchor Kaitlan Collins. Alongside labeling her as a "biased" leftist journalist, she decried Collins as "extremely boring with no personality." Kelly also advised her to loosen up a bit so audiences could better connect with the anchor. In the past, Kelly also found herself in the middle of a similarly one-sided feud with Donald Trump.

Megyn Kelly and Donald Trump got into a very public spat during the first Republican presidential debate of 2015. Although the talk show host made some fair points about how the controversial candidate's history of making negative remarks about women would bode poorly against Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, he stood his ground and rolled his eyes at everyone striving to be politically correct. Afterwards, Trump took to X to make a jab at Kelly's performance, writing, "Wow, @megynkelly really bombed tonight. People are going wild on twitter! Funny to watch." 

Naturally, the future president didn't stop there either. In a CNN interview just a few days later, he once again criticized the conservative talk show host, confirming, "Certainly, I don't have a lot of respect for Megyn Kelly," per Slate. Further, Trump didn't see her as particularly intelligent because he believed she was essentially reading a script and doing a poor job at it to boot. If that wasn't offensive enough already, he infamously complained, "There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever." Needless to say, the comment wasn't well-received by the public. 

Most commentators felt that Trump was making an age-old and deeply sexist reference to menstruation. However, he shared an X post to clarify that "wherever" referred to the talk show host's "nose" for some bizarre reason. The backlash from the polarizing comment obviously wasn't enough to get him off Kelly's case, and the divisive former "Apprentice" host called her out, again on X, in November 2015 for apparently only using the IBD polls to show him trailing behind, and not when he was succeeding. 

Megyn Kelly instantly made an enemy of Jane Fonda when she appeared on "Megyn Kelly Today" in September 2017. After the talk show host commended the legendary actor and activist for aging so gracefully, Kelly inquired as to why Fonda had refused to delve into her plastic surgery procedures with W Magazine. As the "Klute" star took a beat to process the question, she gave Kelly a freezing stare before finally asking her, "We really wanna talk about that?" The Oscar winner then dodged the question completely by attributing her beauty to various run-of-the-mill secrets before noting that she would rather talk about the film she was there to promote instead of her plastic surgery use. 

When Variety asked Fonda for her thoughts on the viral moment in January 2018, she confessed, "I was stunned. It was so inappropriate. It showed that she's not that good an interviewer." The actor shared similar sentiments in numerous interviews, and eventually, Kelly decided she'd had enough. During a January 2018 episode of "Megyn Kelly Today," she claimed that she had only brought up Fonda's plastic surgery use during their chat because she was there to talk about her film "Our Souls At Night," which deals with aging. 

Further, Kelly asserted that Fonda had been open about her cosmetic procedures in past interviews, so she didn't have any reason to believe the topic was off limits. Ultimately, the controversial journalist made it abundantly clear that she didn't think she had crossed a line. Kelly also detailed Fonda's many controversies through the years to try and make a point about how she didn't have any moral high ground to deem her questions out of line.

Samantha Bee has had several run-ins with Megyn Kelly. After the former Fox News host infamously made disparaging remarks about blackface use during Halloween 2018, Bee and her "Full Frontal" correspondent, Ashley Nicole Black, created a segment to educate Kelly about why her remarks were so problematic. After Black spelled out the deeply-rooted racist roots of blackface, Bee chimed in to joke, "Imagine how you'd feel if every cartoon for 100 years was about a prissy blonde who spelled 'Megyn' wrong getting smushed by anvils," (via The Hollywood Reporter). 

Meanwhile, when Bee sat down for a chat with the Santa Barbara Independent in 2017, she was asked what set hers apart from the shows hosted by firebrands like Kelly and Alex Jones. The comedian took a shady jab at the divisive pair by declaring that "Full Frontal" focused "more on the analysis than the hysteria side of things." Bee also defended herself against criticism that she was a cynic by throwing some more subtle shade at Jones and Kelly, arguing, "I think the deeper cynicism is in tricking people, and preying on people's gullibility to make a career for yourself." 

Given all this, it's unsurprising that the former NBC host wasn't afraid to kick Bee when she was down while dealing with the fallout from her own disparaging comments about Ivanka Trump. In fact, in 2019, sources dished to Page Six that Kelly and Bee wound up doing jury duty at the same time. They divulged that much to Bee's dismay, the conservative talk show host wouldn't stop talking to her.

During a 2016 episode of "The Daily Show," host Trevor Noah heavily denounced Megyn Kelly's highly-anticipated interview with Donald Trump. The comedian pointed out that everyone tuned into their chat assuming that they would witness a scathing takedown of the divisive politician. Unfortunately, what they got was Kelly ill-advisedly trying to dig into Trump's emotions to understand him as a person. Noah called the journalist out for failing to counter Trump when he essentially proclaimed that he didn't want to dwell on his mistakes too much. However, in the host's view, the worst part of the interview came when Trump casually laughed off his retweets of people labeling Kelly a "bimbo," and instead of taking issue with his nonchalance, she joined in with the mockery.

Kelly later took to X to blast Noah by writing, "So grateful I have men like @Trevornoah 2 advise on how to deal w/gender attacks- I'm sure his life experience far better than mine on this!" However, the sexist argument didn't really hold water after her interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin aired in 2017 and "Daily Show" correspondent Michelle Wolf shared her thoughts with Noah. "Seeing someone so conniving trying to manipulate the American public was disgusting," she said, per Business Insider. Additionally, Wolf also condemned Kelly for trying to rebrand herself as an even-tempered NBC journalist after being "a pretty, race-baiting puppet" at Fox News. The outspoken correspondent warned Kelly that she could never pull off a Barbara Walters-type public persona.

Naomi Osaka once had a very public feud with Megyn Kelly. The iconic Japanese tennis player announced on Instagram in May 2021 that she was withdrawing from the French Open to prioritize her mental health. However, Kelly evidently wasn't pleased with her decision and took to X to question how Osaka could talk about her anxiety surrounding interviews while gracing the cover of Time Magazine and Vogue Japan. 

According to NBC News, Osaka then took a shot at the news anchor, writing in a since-deleted tweet, "Seeing as you're a journalist I would've assumed you would take the time to research what the lead times are for magazines." She continued, "If you did that you would've found out I shot all of my covers last year. Instead your first reaction is to hop on here and spew negativity, do better Megan." Of course, that wasn't enough to make the conservative news anchor back down, and she shared another X post proudly revealing that the pro athlete had blocked her. 

Further, Kelly also posited that Osaka didn't want to speak to the press because she didn't want to answer any difficult questions. Although the decorated tennis player was happy to walk away from the beef after that, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit editor M.J. Day, who had worked with Osaka in the past, had some harsh words for Kelly amidst the drama. While appearing on the "PEOPLE Every Day" podcast, she labeled the conservative news anchor a "bully" and reprehended her for not following basic journalistic standards by fact-checking before spewing unwarranted hate at Osaka.

After Donald Trump tweeted profanities about Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar on X in February 2019, Sarah Silverman defended her by hurling some NSFW insults back at him. Megyn Kelly then inserted herself into the spat by interrogating how the comedian could have continued involvement with a family-friendly production company like Disney while making such obscene public statements. And Silverman, who had already starred in the hit animated movie "Ralph Breaks The Internet" by then, wasn't about to let that jab slide. 

In response, she tweeted simply, "It's true! I am a blue explicit often political comedian and also love doing voices for children." The comedian elaborated, "I know it's easier if people are one thing but no one is, not even you! We all have many sides and I think that's ok." In a follow-up tweet, Silverman also contended that she was more concerned about a president who didn't want to take any serious action to combat climate change and instead focused on "creating a fake threat out of at-risk brown people at the border." She then cleverly used Kelly's original tweet to announce that her Disney film was available on digital platforms. 

While the voice actor may have expertly used her words to take aim at the controversial news anchor, fellow comedian John Oliver took a different but nonetheless equally effective approach when calling her out. A 2017 episode of "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" featured a clip of Kelly professing that her show was meant to be a "unifying force" for a deeply divided nation, followed by a montage of her making a whole host of racist, homophobic, and other controversial remarks (via YouTube).