Megyn Kelly Backtracks on Fat-Shaming Comments After Backlash
TV

Despite the 47-year-old 'Today' host's lengthy explanation, the ladies on 'The View' are unimpressed as they call out Kelly in its Friday episode.

AceShowbiz - Megyn Kelly walks back on her previous pro body-shaming stance. In Thursday, January 13 episode of her "Today" segment, the 47-year-old host told fit mom blogger Maria Kang that "some of us want to be shamed."

"You should parlay the shaming thing into a professional bussiness," Kelly said to the "No Excuses" campaign founder. "When I was in law school, I was gaining weight, I said to my stepfather, 'If you see me going into that kitchen one more time, you say, 'Where you going, fat a**?' ' And it works!"

Her controversial remarks soon sparked outrage, prompting Kelly to explain the comments in the Friday episode. "I said something yesterday on this show that clearly struck a nerve, and I think it's a conversation we need to have, openly," she told the audience. "We were discussing body-shaming others, something I absolutely do not support. In fact, quite the opposite."

She went on explaining that her "entire family is or has been overweight or obese," and her sister "was at one point over 300 pounds and ultimately chose to have gastric bypass surgery." The journalist continued, "One day, when I was about six years old, I came home in tears. Our neighbor had called my mom 'fat,' and I was angry and upset, and thought it was entirely untrue. ... It was the first time I ever saw my mom through that lens and it was my first lesson about the lens through which most of this country judges heavy people. A brutal and unforgiving one."

She also said that she, too, struggled with body issues. "By the time I got to middle school, the hormones and the weight kicked in. I was chubby by any standard and soon I found myself on the wrong side of some vicious bullies. Ones who called me fat and made fun of my backside, who subjected me to humiliating pranks," she opened up. "Those comments can cut deep, trust me, I know. Soon there were diet pills and obsessive exercise and I had reduced my calorie intake to 500 calories a day."

She continued sharing that she was "unhappy" and "scared of gaining weight because of the insane standard this country holds its women to and because I was and remain afraid of dying in my 40s, which happened to my father." She added, "As a result, I have gotten healthier in my approach to eating, but I, like every woman I know, still wrestle with body image, and still cringe when I hear a person attacked for his or her weight."

"Please know, I would never encourage that toward any person," she concluded. "I've been thinking a lot about why I once encouraged it toward myself. What I know for sure is that weight is an issue for millions of people, thin and heavy alike. And neither deserves to be judged or shamed for how they choose to handle that struggle."

However, the co-hosts of "The View" seemingly were unimpressed with Kelly's lengthy explanation. Joy Behar called her out during their Friday episode, saying, "The proble is that, she [Kelly] is not a comedian. I think she was trying to be funny. But a comedian, if you do it right, you have the blowback against the stepfather, instead of against her. Because you'd make a fool of him. That's a problem. People who are not comics should not do it. Don't go there."

Meghan McCain's response was probably the best one. McCain shared that she was fat-shamed by Laura Ingraham when she was 24. "My career was launched on this show. I came on the show and told her she can kiss my fat blank," she opened up. "A few years later in my career, Glenn Beck went on his radio show and pretended to vomit in a bucket on air because I had done a PSA for skin cancer where, it was the appearance of being nude, but it was literally like my neck up, to tell people to protect from skin cancer. I had been fat-shamed publicly and humiliated my entire career. And when you say something like, 'Sometimes, fat shaming is good,' it really hurt me."

McCain continued, "I want to tell all the girls watching here... to be on TV and what I do here, I never had to lose a pound. I got a hot husband, I got a cool job." She added, "I think we need to be responsible in our rhetoric on television. ... I just want to change the world we live in and how we look at women's bodies. It doesn't matter what size you are."

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