In a teaser for a longer video about her experience watching the Fox News-based movie “Bombshell”, Megyn Kelly spoke about the accusations that the network’s former boss would have female talent “twirl” in his office. “God help me,” Kelly said. “I did it.”
Kelly was one of dozens of women who came forward with accusations of sexual misconduct against Ailes, which ultimately led to his 2016 ouster from the channel he founded. He died the next year. Kelly is portrayed by lead actress Charlize Theron. Kelly watched “Bombshell” with a few other women who “lived” the events shown in the film: Juliet Huddy, Rudi Bakhtiar and Julie Zann.
“I have no connection to the movie ‘Bombshell,’ other than I lived it. I did not produce, consult on, or have anything to do with the film,” Kelly noted in the video. “Neither I nor the women I watched it with sold the rights to our stories (or in my case, my book), so it was somewhat jarring to see a version of our experiences told by strangers. I watched the movie with some of my friends who, like me, were sexually harassed while at Fox News. We talked about it afterward in what proved to be an emotional, raw, revealing discussion of what the filmmakers got right, wrong, and what really happened to us those years ago.”
In their subsequent conversation, the women all discussed “the twirl” or “the spin” they say Ailes would request of female talent. At least one said he verbally critiqued her appearance.
“I was asked to do the spin,” Kelly told the women. “God help me, I did it.”
She went on, “I know people think it’s like, ‘Oh, you had to spin around,’ but I remember feeling like, ‘I put myself through school. I was offered partnership at Jones Day, one of the best law firms in the world. I argued before federal courts of appeal all over the nations. I came here. I’m covering the United States Supreme Court. I graduated with honors from all of my programs and now he wants me to twirl?’ And I did it.”
“If you don’t get how demeaning that is, I can’t help you,” she concluded.
Kelly’s full reaction to watching the film will be released at 4 p.m. ET.