Megyn Kelly revealed in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres that it was President Trump’s constant attacks that led to her decision to depart Fox News after a 12-year career with the cable news network.
The NBC host also said that she left the legal profession to get into journalism because she enjoyed reporting the news, but did not enjoy the amount of political coverage she eventually had to do as the host of her primetime show, ‘The Kelly File.’
‘It wasn’t until I got my job in primetime that the coverage became all political, and I was never a political person,’ explained Kelly while appearing on ‘Ellen’ Wednesday.
‘I wasn’t raised in a political household, and it became clear to me that it just wasn’t what I wanted to do.’
Then came the attacks from the Republican frontrunner during the presidential primary, which continued for over a year.
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Opening up: Megyn Kelly spoke about why she left Fox News in January of last year to take a new post at NBC during an interview with Ellen DeGeneres (above)
Over-and-out: Kelly said that President Trump’s attacks on her played a big role in her decision to leave the network
‘Donald Trump has a way of clarifying one’s life choices,’ said Kelly during the interview, drawing laughter from the studio audience.
‘And that was true in my case too.’
Kelly went on to state: ‘Just as I was wondering if this is where I wanted to be and how I wanted to live, the universe sort of came and shone a light and it was clear to me what I wanted to do.’
She later explained that her job at Fox News had become like a ‘snake pit’ and she kept ‘getting pulled back in’ due to Trump’s tweets and attacks, stating: ‘This wasn’t the life I wanted.’
Kelly did make a popint however of noting that despite President Trump’s calls for a boycott of her show, her ratings only went up during her ‘year of Trump.’
Trump’s attacks on Kelly began after she grilled him about his controversial comments about women during the first Republican debate in August 2015.
‘You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs’ and ‘disgusting animals,” Kelly said.
‘Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president?’
Trump replied: ‘Honestly, Megyn, if you don’t like it, I’m sorry . . . I’ve been very nice to you, although I could probably not be, based on the way you have treated me.’
He then said of Kelly the following day: ‘You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her … wherever.’
The attacks by Trump against Kelly continued for months, and he took to Twitter countless times to lash out at the host or retweet criticisms of her and her show, The Kelly File.
He even backed out of a Fox News-sponsored debate in Iowa that she was moderating earlier this year.
The two eventually made amends and in May, and Trump appeared on Kelly’s primetime special which aired across Fox platforms that same month.
Shut it down: Later in the show, DeGeneres went into the reasons she refreshed to have President Trump on the program (above)
When asked if she would ever have President Trump on her NBC show, Kelly told DeGeneres she would, adding: ‘I would not say no to the sitting president of the United States, I mean, would you?’
DeGeneres immediately responded by telling Kelly that she would in fact say no to President Trump.
‘He is who he is and he has enough attention and he has his Twitter account and he has ways to get his message across, there’s nothing I am going to say to him that’s going to change him and I don’t want to give him a platform because it validates him,’ said DeGeneres.
‘And for me to have someone on the show I hate to at least admire them in some way and I can’t have someone who I feel is not only dangerous for the country and for me personally as a gay woman but to the world. He’s diving all of us.’
She went on to say: ‘ And I think I don’t him to represent …’
DeGeneres at that point just threw her hands up in the air and said: ‘I don’t want him on the show.’