Meghan McCain
Meghan McCain called out SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly on her podcast Citizen McCain on Friday, blasting her former Fox News colleague for what she described as "ugly" and "hateful" comments about female celebrities' bodies.
McCain, 41, took particular issue with Kelly's post-Met Gala commentary. "One thing that gets me really, really, really upset in general is body-shaming. I don't like it," McCain said. She directly addressed Kelly: "Honestly, find better content. If you're scraping the bottom of the barrel talking about women's bodies, there's a lot going on in the world."
During her recent remarks, Kelly, 55, described Girls creator Lena Dunham as "homely" and said she had "gained more weight" during her time away from public view. Kelly made crude physical comments, stating: "She's got calves that look like thighs. She's the one leaning into her obesity. And we're just being subjected to it."
Kelly similarly targeted actress Demi Moore for her appearance at the Cannes Film Festival red carpet, this time attacking her for being too thin. "She's shockingly thin. She looks truly anorexic," Kelly said. "She looks like a Holocaust victim."
McCain highlighted the double standard in Kelly's criticism: "Both of these women are being body-shamed, one for being too thin and one for being too fat. This is how women exist in the world. We are either fat-shamed or thin-shamed, and there's really nothing in between."
McCain, who has been publicly vocal about experiencing body-shaming throughout her career, said Kelly's comments deeply affected her. "I've been fat-shamed my entire career, literally since I emerged on any kind of public forum in any way," McCain explained. "My heart was really breaking watching these clips because I think it's an indicator of where we're going back to."
In 2018, Kelly made controversial remarks about wanting to be body-shamed on Megyn Kelly Today. McCain responded via Twitter, writing: "I was publicly fat shamed early on in my career, and it sent me to therapy. Trust me, there are real-life ramifications for fat shaming of any kind, it is NEVER acceptable."
McCain emphasized the need for empathy when discussing people's appearances. Referencing actor Chadwick Boseman, she noted: "Sometimes when people look skinny, they may be having health issues. We need to be very careful about how we talk about people."
She expressed concern about cultural implications, telling her co-host: "I have two daughters, you have two daughters. I'll be damned if I'm going to raise them in a culture that we're going to go back to this."
This is not the first time McCain has called out Kelly. In November, she criticized Kelly for defending Jeffrey Epstein, calling the remarks "disgusting."