Who Is Megyn Kelly?
In August 2015, a single debate question changed Megyn Kelly’s life forever. Standing at the moderator’s podium during the first Republican presidential primary debate, Kelly challenged then-candidate Donald Trump directly about his history of making demeaning comments about women.
Trump’s reaction was swift, public, and furious, and overnight, Megyn Kelly became one of the most talked-about journalists in America. That moment crystallised something that had been building throughout her career: a fearlessness in front of power, a willingness to ask the hard question regardless of the political consequences, and an on-screen presence that commanded attention in a way that very few anchors in any era have managed.
Megyn Marie Kelly was born on November 18, 1970, in Champaign, Illinois, and today stands as one of the most influential figures in American media. Her career has traversed corporate law, network television, and independent podcasting, and at each stage she has managed to not just survive but to thrive, often in the face of significant institutional opposition.
She is the creator and host of “The Megyn Kelly Show,” a daily podcast and video programme that has grown into one of the most-watched political commentary platforms in the United States, drawing over four million YouTube subscribers and ranking consistently among the top political podcasts on every major platform.
Kelly’s story is one of relentless reinvention. She has been a corporate litigator, a Fox News anchor, an NBC morning show host, and an independent media entrepreneur. Each transition has come with controversy, and she has emerged from each one more independent, more direct, and more willing to define her own terms. Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world in both 2014 and 2025, a span of more than a decade that underscores the remarkable durability of her influence.
Profile
| Full Name | Megyn Marie Kelly |
| Born | November 18, 1970 |
| Age | 55 years old |
| Birthplace | Champaign, Illinois, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Journalist, Political Commentator, Podcast Host, Former Attorney |
| Height | 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Parents | Edward Francis Kelly (father, deceased); Linda Kelly (mother) |
| Siblings | Pete Kelly (brother) |
| Spouse | Daniel Kendall (m. 2001, div. 2006); Douglas Brunt (m. 2008–present) |
| Children | Three, Edward Yates (2009), Yardley Evans (2011), Thatcher Bray (2013) |
| Relationship Status | Married |
| Net Worth | $45 million |
Early Life
Megyn Kelly was born on November 18, 1970, in Champaign, Illinois, the youngest of three children in the Kelly family. Her father, Edward Francis Kelly, was a professor of education at the State University of New York at Albany, a man who brought an intellectual rigour and a love of debate to the household that would later manifest in his youngest daughter’s career.
Her mother, Linda (née DeMaio), worked as a nurse and later ran the behavioural health department at a Veterans Administration hospital. The family was Catholic and raised their children with a strong sense of faith, discipline, and the value of hard work.
The family moved several times during Megyn’s childhood, from Champaign to Syracuse, New York, and eventually to Delmar, a suburb of Albany, when she was nine years old. It was in Delmar that she would spend her formative years, and where, at the age of 15, she faced one of the defining tragedies of her life.
Her father, Edward Kelly, died suddenly of a heart attack, leaving the family in both emotional devastation and financial difficulty. The experience left a lasting imprint on Megyn’s character, fostering an independence and a driven ambition that she has spoken about openly throughout her career.
In her senior yearbook, she listed her future hopes simply as “college, government, and wealth”, a remarkably prescient statement for a teenager navigating grief.
Megyn attended Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar, where she was active in athletics, played field hockey and basketball, served as captain of the cheerleading squad, and played the clarinet.
She was, by all accounts, a competitive and determined student who channelled the loss of her father into a ferocious commitment to succeeding on her own terms.
Education
After graduating from Bethlehem Central High School, Megyn Kelly enrolled at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, though she initially applied to the journalism school and was rejected. She graduated in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, a degree that reflected her intellectual interests and set the stage for a legal career. She then attended Albany Law School, where she earned her Juris Doctor degree in 1995 and distinguished herself academically, serving as an editor on the Albany Law Review. Her legal education gave her the analytical sharpness, the instinct for argumentation, and the command of complex information that would later make her a formidable television interviewer.
Career
Megyn Kelly did not begin her professional life in journalism. After completing her law degree in 1995, she joined the corporate law firm Bickel & Brewer in Chicago as an associate, then moved to the Washington, D.C., office of Jones Day, one of the largest and most prestigious law firms in the world. She spent nearly a decade in corporate litigation, becoming a skilled and respected attorney. The legal world shaped her ability to construct arguments, cross-examine witnesses, and maintain composure under adversarial pressure, skills that would prove invaluable when she made the transition to television.
In 2003, Kelly made a bold career change, leaving law to pursue journalism. She joined WJLA-TV, an ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C., as a general assignment reporter. Despite being a complete newcomer to broadcast news, she proved to be a natural on camera, composed, articulate, and possessed of an instinct for what made a story compelling. Within a year, she had attracted the attention of Fox News, and in 2004 she joined the network as a Washington correspondent.
Kelly’s rise at Fox News was rapid and impressive. She initially contributed legal analysis segments to programmes such as “The O’Reilly Factor” and “Special Report,” then co-anchored the morning programme “America’s Newsroom” before launching her own two-hour afternoon show, “America Live,” in 2010. The programme’s viewership grew significantly under her stewardship, and by the time she was given “The Kelly File” in October 2013, a primetime hour-long programme, she had become one of the network’s biggest stars. “The Kelly File” was a ratings powerhouse, regularly competing with Bill O’Reilly’s programme for the top position in cable news and becoming known for Kelly’s mix of aggressive questioning, rigorous preparation, and willingness to challenge figures across the political spectrum.
The 2015 Republican primary debate, which she co-moderated for Fox News, brought her international attention. Her direct challenge to Donald Trump about his history of disparaging women sparked a furious public response from Trump and his supporters, and the ensuing controversy ran for months. The episode demonstrated both her journalistic courage and the intense polarisation that her profile generated. She remained at Fox News until January 2017, by which time her relationship with the network’s management had become strained and her salary had reached approximately $8 million per year.
In 2017, Kelly moved to NBC News in a deal reportedly worth between $15 million and $23 million per year. She anchored the morning programme “Megyn Kelly Today” as well as a Sunday evening news magazine. The NBC chapter of her career ended abruptly in October 2018 after she made comments during a panel discussion that were widely perceived as a defence of blackface Halloween costumes. The backlash was severe and swift; the show was cancelled, and Kelly departed NBC in January 2019 with a reported payout of approximately $30 million remaining on her contract.
Rather than retreating, Kelly responded by building something entirely her own. In September 2020, she launched “The Megyn Kelly Show” as a podcast through Devil May Care Media, the independent production company she founded. The show moved to SiriusXM and expanded into a daily video programme distributed across YouTube and digital platforms. Its growth has been remarkable: in July 2023 alone, the show’s YouTube channel generated 116.8 million views, surpassing major broadcast networks including NBC News and CBS News during the same period. By late 2025, the channel had accumulated over four million YouTube subscribers. In November 2025, SiriusXM launched The Megyn Kelly Channel, a dedicated outlet for her content, in a deal reportedly worth $10–15 million annually. In March 2025, she won the iHeartRadio Podcast Award for Best Political Podcast and launched MK Media, a broader podcast and video network featuring multiple independent commentators.
Honours & Recognitions
- Named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, 2014 and 2025
- Alumni Achievement Award, Albany Law School, 2010
- Inducted into the Hall of Fame at Bethlehem Central High School
- iHeartRadio Podcast Award for Best Political Podcast, March 2025
- New York Times bestselling author, “Settle for More” (2016)
- One of the highest-rated female news anchors in cable news history during her time at Fox News
Social Media
Megyn Kelly has built a formidable digital presence that complements her podcast and media operations, with millions of followers across multiple platforms.
- YouTube: @MegynKelly
- Instagram: @megynkelly
- Twitter/X: @megynkelly
Personal Life
Megyn Kelly’s personal life has undergone significant transformation across her adult years. She first married Dr. Daniel Kendall, an anesthesiologist she met while working as a lawyer in Chicago. The couple married in September 2001, but divorced in 2006. She rarely discusses this chapter of her life publicly.
In 2006, she met Douglas Brunt, a former technology CEO and author of the novel “The Means,” on a blind date in Washington, D.C. They married on March 1, 2008, in a ceremony that marked the beginning of what has become a long and apparently stable partnership.
Together they have three children, all conceived through IVF: Edward Yates (born 2009), Yardley Evans (born 2011), and Thatcher Bray (born 2013). The family splits time between Connecticut and a waterfront home in New Jersey.
Kelly has spoken candidly on her podcast about the challenges of balancing a demanding career with raising three children, her commitment to physical fitness, including paddleboarding and yoga, and her health journey, including managing Raynaud’s disease.
The NBC blackface controversy of 2018 remains the most publicly damaging episode of her career, and one she has addressed at length, expressing regret for the harm caused while defending the context of her comments.
She has also been publicly vocal about her evolving political identity, describing herself in 2025 as having shifted from centre-right to more consistently conservative, a change she attributes in part to what she describes as the “woke ideology” she encountered during her NBC years.
Net Worth
Megyn Kelly’s estimated net worth is approximately $45 million as of 2025, a figure that reflects a career encompassing corporate law, network television, and independent media entrepreneurship. The foundation of her wealth was laid during her years at Fox News, where her salary grew to approximately $8 million annually.
Her move to NBC added substantially to her earnings, with a contract reportedly valued at approximately $69 million over three years, though her early departure meant she collected approximately $30 million of that figure.
Since founding Devil May Care Media and “The Megyn Kelly Show,” her income has come from SiriusXM distribution deals (her 2025 channel deal reportedly valued at $10–15 million annually), YouTube advertising revenue, a previously reported Spotify distribution arrangement, speaking engagements commanding fees in excess of $100,000, and the royalties from her 2016 memoir “Settle for More.” Her real estate holdings include the family homes in Connecticut and New Jersey.
Notable Works & Contributions
- “America’s Newsroom” — co-anchor, Fox News (2006–2010)
- “America Live” — host, Fox News (2010–2013)
- “The Kelly File” — host, Fox News (2013–2017)
- Republican Primary Debate Moderator — Fox News (2015, 2016) and NewsNation (2023)
- “Megyn Kelly Today” — anchor, NBC News (2017–2018)
- “Settle for More” — memoir, published November 2016 (New York Times bestseller)
- “The Megyn Kelly Show” — founder and host (2020–present)
- “AM Update with Megyn Kelly” — daily news digest podcast (launched February 2025)
- MK Media — podcast and video network (launched March 2025)
- The Megyn Kelly Channel on SiriusXM (launched November 2025)
Conclusion
Megyn Kelly’s career is a study in resilience and reinvention. From the corporate law offices of Chicago to the anchor desk at Fox News, from the studios of NBC to the independent digital media landscape she now navigates with striking commercial success, she has consistently refused to let institutional setbacks define her.
Her willingness to challenge power, regardless of political affiliation, has earned her admirers and enemies in roughly equal measure, and that very polarisation has proved to be one of her most commercially valuable assets in an era of fragmented media.
As she builds MK Media and continues to expand her podcast empire, Megyn Kelly shows no sign of slowing down. Her story is still being written, by a woman who has always insisted on writing it herself.