Megyn Kelly's On-Air Reaction To Charlie Kirk's Death In Real Time Is Her Rawest Moment Yet

Political commentator and media personality Megyn Kelly is perhaps best known for her fiery hot takes and real-time reactions to various crucial political news stories and events — first during her time on Fox News before she ultimately left in 2017, and then on her own podcast, "The Megyn Kelly Show," which first premiered on September 28, 2020. "What the audience wants from me is my authentic self and no filter," she declared during an interview with the The New York Times in March 2025. Alas, it appears the news of Charlie Kirk's tragic death at 31 years old was even more than she could bear, resulting in one of her rawest on-air moments yet.  

"Oh, good God. Yeah, he's dead. It's official," Kelly said upon learning of Kirk's death via a statement from the Turning Point USA chief operating officer. "I am so sorry to be bringing you this news," she added, tears streaming down her face. "I am so sorry. I'm sorry for what it means for our country, for Charlie, poor, dear Charlie and his family. Sorry for what it's going to mean for the debates that we have yet to have that he would have won. He would have put everyone to shame on as he had been. And I'm angry, really f***ing angry, about how this happened, why this happened, and why we don't have a person in custody," she declared.

Megyn Kelly's transformation has really been something to see over the years — and it appears that part of her drastic metamorphosis is partly due to Charlie Kirk. In March 2025, during an interview with The New York Times, Kelly likened her new on-air personality to that of Kirk. "Yes, I'm still a journalist, but I'm in this new ecosystem where the old rules don't apply. I'm in this world with, yes, Charlie Kirk and Dan Bongino and Ben Shapiro, but my world is also Joe Rogan and Theo Von," she said. 

But she didn't stop there. When asked about Governor Gavin Newsom's decision to start a new podcast and even have Kirk on as a guest on his March 6 episode, "This is Gavin Newsom," Kelly called it "smart." She added, "The right is very good at having these debates, because they have to have them everywhere, and they have for all of their lives."

As you may recall, Kirk was a guest on Kelly's podcast multiple times. During his final appearance on the podcast in November 2024, Kelly publicly praised Kirk and credited him for President Donald Trump's win in the 2024 United States Presidential Election. "I mean, truly. You're one of a handful of five that really made the difference," she gushed.

In the wake of Charlie Kirk's death, social media was flooded with clips from some of his past interviews, including a July 11 sit-down with Megyn Kelly at the Turning Point USA Summit. The first topic they touched on was the partisan fight over the Jeffrey Epstein files. Donald Trump has deemed the files a "hoax," but Kelly and Kirk both agreed that his administration should release them. Kirk also called for the government to pursue any people named in the files who were clients of Epstein who might have victimized women or girls. "Why are we not impaneling a special prosecutor to find every single one of these powerful people that went after these kids?" he asked, later adding, "I think the DOJ should immediately move to unseal all of the Epstein documents in the Southern District of New York." Kelly seconded this.

If Trump was unhappy with Kirk for pushing the matter with Kelly, he didn't show it when reacting to the conservative firebrand's death. In fact, the president announced that he would be awarding Kirk with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. Kelly also hinted that she and Trump are on good terms when she continued memorializing Kirk on her website. She vowed to do her part to make sure that his killer was brought to justice, writing, "I pledge to go to the White House myself and talk directly to the president about it."