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After more than two decades in television and media, Megyn Kelly is opening up about the celebrities she says left the worst impression on her throughout her career.
Kelly, 55, who currently has her own SiriusXM podcast and radio show, The Megyn Kelly Show, didn’t hesitate to name the “meanest” celebrities she’s encountered. “Jane Fonda comes to mind,” the former TV journalist told the Daily Mail in a story published on Tuesday, December 30.
Kelly and Fonda have a history dating back to a tense 2017 interview on Megyn Kelly Today. At the time, Fonda, now 88, took issue with Kelly questioning her about plastic surgery — a topic Kelly claimed the actress had previously discussed publicly.
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Kelly explained that she pivoted to the plastic surgery topic to avoid discussing Fonda’s sex scenes with Robert Redford in Our Souls at Night, which Fonda was promoting during the interview.
“What happened in that segment, Robert Redford was on, his PR person came up to me, and said ‘For the love of God, don’t talk about their sex scenes,”‘ Kelly said, per the outlet.
Kelly added that Fonda “was offended that I wasn’t steering her there. She really wanted to talk about their sex scenes.”
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Bruce Willis was another name Kelly cited. She recalled interviewing the iconic actor in 2006 during her time at Fox News and described the experience as disappointing. “He came on and was just so clearly unhappy to be there. I mean, that’s fine, he has his politics, but why agree to come on?” Kelly said.
Kelly characterized Willis’s demeanor at the time as “so ungiving, so ungenerous.”
“And I hate to say it because of how he’s struggling now. But he was just unpleasant,” Kelly said, referring to Willis’s current battle with dementia.
Kelly also called out Today show staple Al Roker, saying he came across differently off-camera than viewers might expect. “Let’s just say, if my mother ran into Al Roker, she would turn into Larry David bumping into Alan Derschowitz at Martha’s Vineyard very quickly.”
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Kelly’s quip has to do with the widely reported 2021 incident in which David called Dershowitz “disgusting” over his support for President Donald Trump after the two crossed paths on Martha’s Vineyard.
Ellen DeGeneres was another celebrity Kelly criticized. Kelly claimed to know someone whose family member worked on DeGeneres’ talk show. “This was a producer on the show. They were all told, if you come across her in the hallway, even if you’re already looking in that general direction, to look down at the floor.”
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“And I knew that before the bullying scandal broke, so when it did, I was not surprised at all. She is a bad person,” Kelly added.
Not all of Kelly’s experiences were negative. She named political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos as a “total charmer,” Russell Brand as “completely warm” and Kathie Lee Gifford for being “nice to me during what was one of the most unpleasant years of my life.”
Kelly also had kind words for Jada Pinkett Smith, calling her “so sweet” and “sincere.”
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She went on to reveal she’s struck up a friendship with Tommy Vietor, a cohost of Pod Save America. “He’s my favorite Pod Save America guy. No one else knows that,” Kelly dished.
Before entering TV, Kelly worked as a lawyer. She joined Fox News in 2004 and worked at NBC from 2017 to 2019 before launching The Megyn Kelly Show. She has since become a conservative media voice and an outspoken supporter of Trump.