Megyn Kelly

Megyn Kelly
Kelly in 2025
Megyn Kelly
Born	Megyn Marie Kelly 11/18/1970
Birthplace	Champaign, Illinois, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Journalist, political commentator, attorney, media personality
Title	Host of The Megyn Kelly Show
Employer	SiriusXM; MK Media
Known for	The Kelly File; The Megyn Kelly Show
Education	Syracuse University (BA); Albany Law School (JD)
Children	3

Megyn Marie Kelly (born November 18, 1970) is an American journalist, attorney, political commentator, and media personality. She hosts The Megyn Kelly Show, a daily talk show and podcast distributed on SiriusXM's Triumph channel and through online video platforms. Kelly first came to national prominence at Fox News, where she worked from 2004 to 2017 and anchored programs including America's Newsroom, America Live, and The Kelly File. After leaving Fox, she anchored Megyn Kelly Today for NBC News from 2017 to 2018 before transitioning to independent media. In 2025, she launched MK Media, a podcast and video network featuring commentary and news programs from independent creators. Kelly was named to Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014 and again in 2025. Before her career in journalism, Kelly practiced corporate law for nearly a decade at firms in Chicago and Washington, D.C. Her on-air style — combining prosecutorial questioning with a conservative-leaning audience base — became a defining feature of her television and podcast work, particularly during her coverage of the 2016 and 2024 United States presidential election cycles, in which she moderated primary debates.

Early Life

Kelly was born on November 18, 1970, in Champaign, Illinois, the youngest of three children of Linda, a homemaker and hospital employee, and Edward Kelly, a professor of education at the State University of New York at Albany. Her family relocated to Delmar, a suburb of Albany, New York, when she was nine years old, after her father took a position at SUNY Albany.

When Kelly was 15, her father died suddenly of a heart attack, an event she has described in interviews as formative. She has spoken about the early loss as having shaped her resilience and her willingness to take professional risks later in life. She attended Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar, where she was involved in cheerleading and student activities.

Kelly has recounted that her teenage years in upstate New York were spent in a middle-class household and that her mother's directness and humor exerted a lasting influence on her professional demeanor. She initially pursued an interest in journalism during high school but later said she set aside that ambition after an unfavorable experience while applying to the Syracuse University newspaper as an undergraduate.

Education

Kelly enrolled at Syracuse University in 1988, graduating in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. After being turned down for a position at the campus newspaper, The Daily Orange, she shifted her academic focus away from journalism and toward law.

She then attended Albany Law School, from which she earned a Juris Doctor in 1995. While at Albany Law, she served as an editor of the Albany Law Review, publishing legal scholarship during her studies.

Career

Legal practice

After law school, Kelly joined the Chicago office of the international law firm Bickel & Brewer, where she practiced commercial litigation. She later moved to the Chicago office of Jones Day, a global corporate law firm, where she worked on complex civil matters. Her published litigation work during this period included appellate matters in the federal circuit courts.

After roughly nine years in legal practice, Kelly grew dissatisfied with the demands of corporate law and began to explore a return to journalism, the field she had set aside in college.

Transition to broadcast journalism

In 2003, Kelly approached television news directors in Washington, D.C., and was hired as a general assignment reporter at WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in the capital. She covered local and national stories, including legal affairs and the 2004 presidential campaign, and her on-air work attracted the attention of Fox News executives.

Fox News (2004–2017)

Kelly joined Fox News Channel in 2004 as a Washington-based correspondent, contributing legal analysis to programs across the network's schedule. She quickly became a fixture on The O'Reilly Factor, where her exchanges with host Bill O'Reilly raised her national profile, and she also appeared regularly on Special Report with Brit Hume.

In 2007, Kelly was promoted to co-anchor of America's Newsroom, a two-hour morning program she hosted alongside Bill Hemmer. The program became one of Fox's most-watched daytime broadcasts, and Kelly's prosecutorial interviewing style — drawing on her background in litigation — became a recognized feature of her on-air presence.

In February 2010, Fox News announced that Kelly would receive her own daytime program, America Live, which premiered later that month in the 1 p.m. Eastern time slot. America Live featured a mix of breaking news, legal analysis, and political coverage. By the end of 2010, the program had recorded the largest year-over-year ratings increase of any Fox News show, according to industry reports. Kelly co-anchored Fox News's New Year's Eve coverage with Hemmer during this period.

In October 2013, Fox News moved Kelly into prime time with The Kelly File, which aired weeknights at 9 p.m. Eastern. The program focused on breaking news, political controversies, and long-form interviews, and became one of the network's top-rated programs. Her tenure on The Kelly File included high-profile coverage of the 2014 midterm elections and the 2016 presidential primaries.

In August 2015, Kelly moderated the first Republican presidential primary debate of the 2016 cycle alongside Bret Baier and Chris Wallace. Her opening question to candidate Donald Trump, concerning his past remarks about women, became one of the most widely discussed moments of the primary season and led to a sustained public conflict between Kelly and Trump. In a profile published in early 2015, The New York Times Magazine described Kelly as one of the most influential figures in cable news, citing her ability to challenge guests across the political spectrum. She has publicly described her own politics as independent, having registered as such since 2008.

Kelly's contract with Fox News expired in early 2017, and she elected not to renew, departing the network in January of that year.

NBC News (2017–2018)

In January 2017, Kelly signed a multi-year agreement with NBC News. The deal included three programs: a Sunday evening newsmagazine, Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly; a weekday morning hour of the Today show, branded Megyn Kelly Today; and a role in the network's coverage of breaking news and major political events.

Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly premiered in June 2017 and ran through the summer of that year, while Megyn Kelly Today launched in September 2017 as the 9 a.m. hour of NBC's flagship morning program. The daytime program drew mixed reviews and struggled to match the ratings of its predecessor in the time slot. In October 2018, following on-air comments by Kelly regarding the use of blackface in Halloween costumes, Megyn Kelly Today was cancelled. Kelly formally parted ways with NBC News in January 2019.

Independent media and The Megyn Kelly Show (2020–present)

After leaving NBC, Kelly spent more than a year away from regular broadcasting before launching The Megyn Kelly Show as a podcast in September 2020. The program was distributed independently before moving to SiriusXM, where it airs daily on the satellite radio service's Triumph channel and is simulcast on YouTube and other video platforms. The show combines long-form interviews, political commentary, and panel discussions, and has accumulated more than four million subscribers on YouTube.

During the 2024 United States presidential election cycle, Kelly returned to debate moderation, participating in primary debates and conducting interviews with major candidates. She has used her independent platform to comment on cable-news developments, including events at her former network rivals. In June 2026, Kelly criticized the departure of 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley from CBS News, calling the move "overdue" and "the right call" on her program. She has also covered ongoing political developments, including extended ballot counting following California's June 2026 primary, which she characterized on her June 5 program as "ridiculous."

In 2025, Kelly expanded her operations by launching MK Media, a podcast and video network housing commentary and news programs hosted by independent creators in addition to her own show. The expansion accompanied her renewed inclusion on Time's list of the 100 most influential people that year.

Books

Kelly is the author of the memoir Settle for More, published in November 2016, which recounted her upbringing, her transition from law to broadcasting, and her experience moderating the 2015 Republican presidential debate.

Personal Life

Kelly was married to Daniel Kendall, an anesthesiologist, from 2001 to 2006; during that marriage she occasionally used the surname Kendall professionally. In 2008, she married Douglas Brunt, a novelist and former chief executive of the cybersecurity firm Authentium. The couple have three children together and have lived in the New York metropolitan area for the duration of their marriage.

Kelly has stated publicly that she has been registered as an independent voter since 2008 and does not identify with either major American political party. She has frequently discussed the early death of her father as a formative personal experience in interviews and in her memoir.

Recognition

Kelly was named to Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014 and again in 2025. The 2014 citation, written by political commentator Howard Kurtz, highlighted her on-air interviewing style and her growing influence in cable news.

In January 2015, The New York Times Magazine published a lengthy cover profile of Kelly titled "The Megyn Kelly Moment," characterizing her as a singular figure in cable news whose work spanned ideological lines in its appeal. Earlier industry coverage by The New York Times in 2010 noted that Kelly had developed a "voice without the shrillness" common to opinion-driven cable programming, an assessment cited frequently in later profiles.

Her ratings achievements at Fox News — including the largest year-over-year ratings increase at the network in 2010 — were widely reported in trade press at the time. The Kelly File was consistently among the highest-rated cable news programs during its run from 2013 to 2017.

Legacy

Kelly's career has traced an arc unusual within American broadcast journalism: a transition from nearly a decade of corporate legal practice to network correspondent, to prime-time cable host, to network morning anchor, and ultimately to independent media entrepreneur. Industry observers have cited her departure from Fox News in 2017 and her later success as an independent podcaster as illustrative of broader shifts in the cable news business, including the rising influence of subscription audio and online video as alternatives to traditional networks.

Her moderation of the August 2015 Republican primary debate is regarded as one of the more consequential moments of the 2016 campaign's early phase, both for its impact on the Republican primary and for the role it played in reshaping the public relationship between candidates and the news media. Profiles in The New York Times Magazine and Elle have credited Kelly with broadening the demographic appeal of prime-time cable news during her Kelly File years, particularly among women viewers.

The launch of MK Media in 2025 placed Kelly among a cohort of former network journalists — including figures from CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News — who have built independent digital media operations after departing legacy newsrooms. Her continued inclusion on the Time 100 list more than a decade after her first appearance reflects the persistence of her presence in American political discourse across multiple platforms.