TV host Megyn Kelly found herself facing major backlash after she made comments on her show that seemed to indicate she saw no problem with a white person wearing blackface if it’s a Halloween costume, as reported by the Inquisitr .
Kelly’s time with the network has been turbulent, to say the least, with drama and controversy at nearly every stage of her time hosting the show. Her nightly news show had production put on hold after she faced backlash for interviewing right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and her time as host of the Today Show was panned by critics.
The last straw seemed to be when Kelly indicated she didn’t see an issue with blackface as long as the person was dressing up like a character.
“What is racist?” Kelly said on Tuesday. “You do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween, or a black person that puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid, that was okay, as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character.”
Despite apologizing on the show the next day, the backlash against Kelly’s comments was immediate. Al Roker, the show’s former host, said that she owed “a bigger apology to folks of color around the country.”
Kelly issued a second apology on Wednesday on-air.
“I want to begin with two words: ‘I’m sorry,’” she said at the start of her show. “Yesterday we had a discussion here about political correctness and Halloween costumes, and that conversation turned to whether it is ever okay for a person of one race to dress up as another — a black person making their race lighter or a white person making theirs darker, to make a costume complete.”
“I defended the idea, saying as long as it was respectful, and part of a Halloween costume, it seemed okay,” she continued. “Well, I was wrong and I am sorry.”
Now, with Kelly reportedly going to be dropped by the network, her legal team wants investigative journalist Ronan Farrow in the room when her lawyers meet with NBC executives over her reported firing according to Page Six .
“Megyn Kelly’s litigator Bryan Freedman is meeting with NBC execs [Friday] and has requested that Ronan Farrow attend, so he can be a witness,” a source told Page Six .
Farrow, who broke the story about Hollywood exec Harvey Weinstein’s years of sexual abuse and misconduct, has a history with NBC after the network declined to run the Weinstein story. Farrow even claimed the network attempted to block the story from ever going to air or print, forcing him to run the story in the New Yorker .
Kelly called for an independent outside firm to look into the allegations that the network tried to hide the story in September.
“There’s the question of the faith and confidence of the public in the reporting of NBC on matters involving itself,” Kelly said. “For me, as a lawyer, it’s always better if you just send it outside. And then people can have more faith in it.”
Page Six could not reach NBC for further comment on this story.