During Megyn Kelly’s first week hosting her morning talk show on NBC back in the fall of 2017, things got awkward when she asked the “woke” Hollywood star Jane Fonda about her lengthy documented history of getting plastic surgery. Now, Kelly is finally revealing the reason that she asked Fonda about this.
But first, relive the awkward exchange for yourself in the video below.
Kelly Was Trying To Protect Robert Redford
The New York Post reported that Fonda had been on Kelly’s show that morning with Robert Redford to discuss their Netflix movie Our Souls At Night. During Wednesday’s episode of her SiriusXM podcast, Kelly claimed that Redford was “visibly uncomfortable” with co-star Fonda because she “kept wanting to talk about being in bed with” him during their promotional interviews.
“Jane Fonda was on set [at NBC in 2017] and so was Robert Redford … and she had been doing a publicity tour with all this weird sex talk about him,” Kelly alleged. “She kept wanting to talk about being in bed with Robert Redford in the movie.”
In Our Souls At Night, Fonda and Redford portrayed a widow and widower who decide to start sleeping with one another platonically in order to overcome their respective grief and loneliness. Fonda couldn’t stop talking about their love scenes as they promoted the film on various television shows, and according to Kelly, Redford had enough of it.
Related: Jane Fonda Reveals Major Regret At 84 – ‘I’m Not Proud’
Redford ‘Was Visibly Uncomfortable’
“And you could tell he was visibly uncomfortable with it,” Kelly said of Redford. “And during the commercial break, Robert Redford’s publicist specifically asked me if I would try to keep her off of that, if I would redirect the conversation to something else.”
After telling his publicist that she would do that, Kelly asked Fonda about “having work done,” asking this as a “favor for Robert Redford.”
Fonda has been open about having plastic surgery for decades, so Kelly didn’t think that asking her about it again would be an issue.
“So that’s why I thought I would come back in with something she talked about a million times before, her plastic surgery,” Kelly said. “And it was relevant because it’s [the movie] about aging and a woman coming to terms with what that means.”
“So I thought it would be the non-awkward place to go. Wrong!” she continued.
Watch Kelly talk more about this in the video below.
Related: Jane Fonda Opens Up About Her ‘Solo’ Sex Life At 84
Fonda Thought Kelly Interview Was ‘Weird’
Fonda told Entertainment Tonight Canada in 2017 that she thought it was “weird” that Kelly brought up her plastic surgery.
“Given the fact that we don’t have a lot of time and Bob is right here, it’s a weird thing to bring up — whether I’ve had plastic surgery or not,” Fonda said at the time. “I have and I’ve talked about it. Seemed like the wrong time and place to ask that question.”
While Fonda has been known as a liberal activist for decades, Kelly had been a conservative Fox News host for years prior to this 2017 interview, which was one of her first on NBC. Fonda likely didn’t come into that interview with a high opinion of Kelly, given their differing political views, so it could also be argued that the actress used that plastic surgery answer to try and make her rightwing interviewer look bad.
Kelly’s version of events explains a lot about how that awkward interviewer came to be. In the end, Kelly probably should have thought twice before booking a woman who was named “Hanoi Jane” as one of her first interviews on NBC.
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