Megyn Kelly
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Megyn Kelly is launching her next chapter on Facebook-owned Instagram after being shunned by the cable and broadcast networks where she cut her teeth.
NBC News announced last October it was ending Kelly’s morning show, “Megyn Kelly Today,” after the former Fox News host questioned if blackface was truly racist during an segment on Halloween costumes. Kelly said when she was growing up, blackface, “was OK as long as you were dressing up as like a character.” Kelly later apologized to her colleagues and audience for the comments.
Kelly and NBC News ultimately parted ways, with Kelly taking home the rest of her $69 million contract. She was also free from any noncompete clause, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Media reports speculated that Kelly might return to Fox News or head to CBS, but executives at both companies publicly squashed those rumors.
About a year after her TV ouster, Kelly is taking the influencer route: jumping over the old barriers to entry and attempting to build a following on social media.
Kelly posted her first video to a new verified Instagram account Friday, teasing an interview with the former CBS and ABC employee reportedly fired for allegedly leaking a hot mic clip of ABC “Good Morning America” anchor Amy Robach. In the clip, Robach says that she had a story on Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged sexual misconduct three years ago, but that the network would not air the story.
Robach later said in a statement to several media outlets that she was expressing “a private moment of frustration.” ABC News said in a separate statement after the leak that “not all of our reporting met our standards to air” at the time.
ABC and CBS representatives did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment on Kelly’s interview.
Herself cast out from traditional TV networks, Kelly says in the Instagram post that she interviewed the suspected leaker of Robach’s hot mic clip. Kelly said she will post the video to Instagram and Google-owned YouTube later Friday.
“We got the full story and I think you’re going to be fascinated by it,” Kelly says in the clip.
WATCH: Lachlan Murdoch puts an end to speculation that Megyn Kelly will return to Fox News
