Megyn Kelly Biography

Megyn Marie Kelly (born November 18, 1970), formerly known as Megyn Kendall, is a news anchor on the Fox News Channel. Kelly previously hosted America Live on weekdays from the network's New York City headquarters. Prior to that, she co-hosted America's Newsroom along with Bill Hemmer. Since 2007, the two have hosted Fox News Channel's New Year's Eve special every year.

Personal life and education

Kelly was nine years old when her parents moved to Delmar, New York, from Syracuse. At Bethlehem Central High School, she played on the basketball and field hockey teams and captained the cheerleading squad. Kelly's father, who was on the staff of the University at Albany, died when she was 15 years old. After high school, she pursued an undergraduate degree in Political Science at Syracuse University, and later obtained a J.D. from Albany Law School, where she served as an associate editor of the Albany Law Review.

Kelly's first marriage to Daniel Kendall, an anesthesiologist, ended in divorce in 2006. In 2008, she married Douglas Brunt, President and CEO of Authentium, who is now a full-time writer and novelist. They have three children.

Career in law

Following her graduation from Albany Law School in 1995, Kelly was an associate in the Chicago office of law firm Bickel & Brewer LLP, during which time she co-wrote an article for the American Bar Association's journal, Litigation, called "The Conflicting Roles of Lawyer as Director". She later joined Jones Day for nine years, where she served as an attorney for credit bureau Experian.

Career in journalism

Kelly moved to Washington, D.C., where she was hired by the ABC News affiliate WJLA-TV as a general assignment reporter. While at WJLA-TV she covered significant national and local events including major national events such as the 2004 presidential election and the Beltway sniper attacks. She then applied for a job at Fox Entertainment Group in 2004. Prior to her anchor role on the Fox News network she served as a general assignment reporter located in Washington, D.C., where she provided live coverage of the confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., and Chief Justice John G. Roberts. She also reported on the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and the death of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.

Kelly contributed legal segments for Special Report with Brit Hume and hosted her own legal segment, "Kelly's Court", during Weekend Live. She appears on a weekly segment on The O'Reilly Factor and occasionally filled in for Greta Van Susteren on On the Record in the past. Most of her reporting focused on legal and political matters. At this time she occasionally contributed as an anchor but she was often stationed as a substitute anchor, mostly on the weekends. On February 1, 2010, Kelly began hosting her own two hour show, America Live, replacing Fox News' previous show The Live Desk co-hosted by Martha MacCallum and Trace Gallagher. In turn, MacCallum took Kelly's position on America's Newsroom. She has been a guest-panelist on Fox News' late-night satire program Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld. Kelly's "America Live" program has been up 20% in total viewers (averaging 1,293,000) and up 4% in the 25"54 demographic (averaging 268,000).

Kelly received media attention for her coverage of the results of the 2012 United States presidential election. On November 6, 2012, the night of the election, Fox News projected that Obama would win a second term after part of the results had been released. In response to Karl Rove's opposition to this projection, Kelly asked Rove, "Is this just math that you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better? Or is this real?"

Kelly left as host of America Live in the beginning of July 2013 for maternity leave and will host The Kelly File, airing weekdays at 9 p.m., beginning October 7, 2013.