Megyn Kelly names 'meanest' celebrities... and hints NBC's twinkly-eyed TV grandpa is not as nice as he seems
Megyn Kelly says she has encountered some horrific celebrity behavior during her illustrious career as a journalist - and now she's naming names.
Kelly, 55, instantly said 'Jane Fonda comes to mind' when asked about mean stars during an exclusive Daily Mail interview.
Fonda, 88, chided Kelly on-air in 2017 for asking her about plastic surgery procedures she openly admitted to during previous interviews.
And now Kelly has revealed she only asked that question during her short stint as a host on NBC's Today in a bid to stop Fonda gushing about her sex scenes with Robert Redford in Our Souls at Night, the movie they were promoting.
'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.
A publicist for Redford, who died in September aged 89, purportedly told her: 'He doesn't want to talk about them. Steer her to any other topic. It makes him uncomfortable.'
Kelly said she 'listened' - before being chided on-air for asking Fonda about another topic that fascinates viewers.
'She was offended that I wasn't steering her there. She really wanted to talk about their sex scenes,' Kelly said, after Fonda took exception to being asked about facelifts she'd previously discussed on multiple occasions.
The Daily Mail has contacted Fonda for comment.
Meanwhile, Kelly billed Bruce Willis as similarly standoffish - albeit for different reasons - during a separate appearance on Fox News in 2006.
Megyn Kelly pictured with Savannah Guthrie and Al Roker in 2018
Kelly during her notorious 2017 interview with Jane Fonda
Kelly is pictured with Fonda and Robert Redford, who reportedly hated Fonda discussing their sex scenes
Kelly recalled: '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?'
Willis, 70, is one of Hollywood's few openly Republican stars. But his famously rough-and-ready charm was sorely lacking when he appeared on the right wing network, which had Kelly as one of its top stars between 2004 and 2017.
'Usually people have some give. He didn't. At all,' Kelly said, slamming the star's demeanor 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 ongoing battle with dementia.
Perhaps most surprising of all were Kelly's remarks about NBC Today star Al Roker, 71, who was named as America's best-liked morning show host in a Daily Mail poll in July.
Asked about anyone she's met who is cheerful onscreen and unpleasant when the cameras stop rolling, Kelly said: 'Let's just say, if my mother ran into Al Roker, she would turn into Larry David bumping into Alan Dershowitz at Martha's Vineyard very quickly.'
In 2021, comedian David allegedly branded lawyer Dershowitz 'disgusting' over his support for Donald Trump after the two bumped into each other on the billionaire-stuffed island, eyewitnesses said.
Kelly slammed Bruce Willis - one of Hollywood's few openly Republican stars - as 'unpleasant'
Kelly is seen with then-costars Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, and Al Roker in January 2018
Kelly didn't elaborate further on Roker's alleged meanness. The Daily Mail has contacted NBC News for comment.
Kelly left NBC in early 2019. Her talk show program had been canceled months prior after making controversial statements about children dressing in blackface for Halloween, and she eventually parted ways with the network.
Kelly heaped further scorn onto Ellen DeGeneres, 67, and echoed claims about the disgraced host's rumored nightmare behavior previously revealed by the Daily Mail.
'I worked with someone - that person had a very close family member work for Ellen,' Kelly claimed.
'That staffer was very reliable, and they said you were not allowed to even make eye contact with her.
'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.
'You would look down like a serf. You'd actually have to avert your eyes.'
'I've never heard anything like that before. With any of these big personalities.
'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 appeared on DeGeneres' show
Kelly at the TIME100 Gala in April. Kelly made the list this year for her independent journalism
Kelly, now the host of a successful web show, also singled out some of the more pleasant personalities she's had to deal with.
'Milo Ventimiglia - total charmer,' Kelly said, adding that the This Is Us actor is just as pleasant off-camera as he is on-screen.
'And Russell Brand. Completely warm. Was very impressed by him,' she said of the British comedian turned born-again Christian and conservative star.
Brand, 50, was charged with two counts of rape, one count of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault to which he pleaded not guilty. This month, he was charged with additional charges, one count of rape and one count of sexual assault.
Kelly also had kind words for Today veteran Kathie Lee Gifford, 72, who she said 'was nice to me during what was one of the most unpleasant years of my life.'
'When people on the Today show were not giving me a warm welcome, treating me like the redheaded stepchild of NBC, she took me out. She met my family.'
Jada Pinkett Smith, she added, was 'so sweet, so sincere, [and] so genuine' during an appearance on Megyn Kelly Today in 2018.
'I'm still her fan,' Kelly said of Smith, 54, the wife of actor Will Smith.
The conservative journalist also revealed a surprising friendship with liberal podcasting rival Tommy Vietor, who co-hosts influential show Pod Save America.
Kelly had kind words for then colleague Kathie Lee Gifford, whom she described as a breath of fresh air
Kelly also revealed that she is a fan of Pod Saves America's Tommy Vietor and that the two occasionally correspond
'He's my favorite Pod Save America guy. No one else knows that,' Kelly said.
Kelly, a lawyer before joining Fox News in 2004, said she's voted for both Democrats and Republicans in the past, but is now a staunch conservative and fan of Trump.
Speaking on The Megyn Kelly Show earlier this year, she explained: 'When I was at Fox and then for that year at NBC, I was more in the center. I was like definitely center-right.
'Now I think I'm pretty conservative. I mean, I just am now. I mean, the earth has shifted such that I think I have to say, yes, by today's standards, you'd call me conservative,' she said at the time.
'But that's thanks to them. What they did to me, they were vicious. They're complete a**holes. Their woke ideology completely radicalized me against them. And I love that,' Kelly added, referring to many liberals who once had centrist politics but who now espouse extreme leftists views.
'It empowered me in a way that allowed me to see the truth about them. That was very helpful to me. I wouldn't undo it if I could because it really helped me understand who I was dealing with over there.'
