Megyn Kelly’s Biggest Controversies — Santa Claus, Jeffrey Epstein & More Inflammatory Moments

Megyn Kelly has gone from Fox News anchor to NBC News star to independent podcaster, but when it comes to the news, she has often been the story instead of the reporter.

Her takes on hot-button issues are hard to escape. In May 2025, the conservative media tracker The Righting reported that The Megyn Kelly Show had become the third-largest right-wing podcast after growing 176 percent year over year.

Controversy is another constant of Kelly’s career so far, and we’re not just talking about her probing into Jane Fonda’s plastic surgery use or claiming she wanted to be body-shamed. Presented here is a timeline of even bigger controversies, our picks for her biggest yet.

2013: Megyn Kelly insists Santa Claus is white and Jesus was, too

In 2013, Kelly reacted to a Slate article by Aisha Harris, in which Harris argued against the racial bias that has Christmas celebrants defaulting to an image of a white Santa Claus.

On her Fox News show The Kelly File, Kelly not only insisted that Santa is white but said Jesus was, too. “Yet another person claiming it’s racist to have a white Santa,” she said. “And, by the way, 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. But you know, Santa is what he is, and just so you know, we’re just debating this ’cause someone wrote about it, kids.”

Later in the segment, Kelly said, “Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable, doesn’t mean it has to change. You know, I mean, Jesus was a white man, too.”

Amid backlash from viewers, fact-correcting statements from scholars, and satirical takedowns on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, Kelly claimed her comments were “tongue-in-cheek” and that “the knee-jerk instinct by so many to race-bait and to assume the worst in people,” per TheWrap.

2017: She interviews Alex Jones on NBC

Social media users revolted, and at least one advertiser pulled ads in 2017 after Kelly, then an employee of NBC, announced she would interview Alex Jones on her show Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly. Jones, the scandal-ridden figure behind the website InfoWars, had previously outraged Americans with his claim that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax.

In a statement at the time, Kelly called Jones’ view on Sandy Hook “revolting,” per The New York Times. “It left me, and many other Americans, asking the very question that prompted this interview: How does Jones, who traffics in these outrageous conspiracy theories, have the respect of the president of the United States and a growing audience of millions?” she added.

In the fallout of Kelly’s decision, the gun violence prevention organization Sandy Hook Promise dropped her as the host of its annual gala, and JPMorgan Chase chose not to advertise on NBC after the interview aired. Kristin Lemkau, then the JPMorgan Chase’s chief marketing officer, expressed revulsion that Kelly would “give a second of airtime” to Jones.

2018: She defends the use of blackface in Halloween costumes

In a controversy that led to her NBC exit, Kelly suggested that Halloween costumes involving blackface were OK in a 2018 discussion on Megyn Kelly Today about Luann de Lesseps dressing up as Diana Ross.

“You do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface at Halloween or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween,” she said. “Back when I was a kid, that was OK as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character.”

More from this section

Movies and TV shows casting across the US

Kelly later apologized to viewers on air (in what ended up being the final episode of Megyn Kelly Today) and to NBC News colleagues in an internal memo. NBC canceled the daytime talk show days later, and Kelly’s lawyer began negotiating her exit from the network, which was finalized in a few months, per CNN.

2024: She endorses Donald Trump following his insults

At a 2024 rally for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, Kelly said she’d be voting for the ex-president because he “will be a protector of women,” as the Associated Press reported. She also commended Trump for his views on border security and transgender athletes.

Commentators pointed out at the time that Kelly was shilling for the very person who had said there was “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever” after a 2015 Republican debate in which Kelly asked Trump about his history of calling women animals.

“How did Megyn Kelly go from being the target of Trump’s misogynistic attacks to encouraging other women to vote for him?” asked Glamour’s Kathleen Walsh after Kelly’s 2024 endorsement.

“Seriously, though, is anyone actually buying this?” wondered The New York Times’ Jessica Bennett. And The Cut’s Danielle Cohen wrote, “Has she listened to a word he’s said?”

2022–2023: She delivers anti-LGBTQ statements

GLAAD’s Accountability Project has called out and fact-checked Kelly’s many offending comments about LGBTQ individuals as of 2023. In 2022, for example, Kelly called gender-affirming care for children a “weird form of conversion therapy.” In 2023, she said she was “done with ‘preferred pronouns’” for trans and nonbinary people and mis-pronouned trans individuals like swimmer Lia Thomas. That same year, she criticized Target’s Pride-themed merchandise and said that anyone who markets Pride products to youth is a groomer. She also declared in 2023 that drag performers’ work “can include absolutely include the grooming of young people.”

2025: She tries to make a distinction about Jeffrey Epstein

On The Megyn Kelly Show in 2025, Kelly said she had heard from someone “very close” to the Jeffrey Epstein case who said that the convicted sex offender was not a pedophile.

“He was into the barely legal type, like, he liked 15-year-old girls,” Kelly said, per NPR. “I’m not trying to make an excuse for this, I’m just giving you facts — that he wasn’t into, like, 8-year-olds. But he liked the very young teen types that could pass for even younger than they were, but would look legal to a passer-by.”

She added, per Vanity Fair, “I think there is a difference. There’s a difference between a 15-year-old and a 5-year-old, you know?”

One of the critics who spoke out against Kelly’s comments was a 14-year-old TikTok user named Eloise, who said, “The minute adults start defending predators by debating the age of a child, you’re not protecting the truth. You’re protecting the predator. And you shouldn’t need a freshman to tell you that.”

More Headlines:

• ‘Wheel of Fortune’: Ryan Seacrest Almost Gets Knocked Over After Contestant Wins Car
• Megyn Kelly’s Biggest Controversies — Santa Claus, Jeffrey Epstein & More Inflammatory Moments
• ‘Little House on the Prairie’: Netflix Reboot Debuts Teaser Trailer
• Renewed TV Shows 2026: Find Out Which Series Will Return for Another Season
• ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ Season 2 Begins Production — Who Are the New Smiths?