Megyn Kelly, a superstar host of Fox News who was prominently attacked by Donald Trump over the course of this election season, will leave the network for a position at NBC News, according to The New York Times.
The Times reports that Kelly was interested in the NBC role because it’ll give her a chance to do more in-depth and hard news work. She’ll anchor a daytime show, as well as a Sunday night news show, and will be part of events and breaking news coverage as well, she wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
"Over a dozen years ago I started at Fox News in a job that would change my life," Kelly wrote on Facebook. "Now, I have decided to end my time at FNC, incredibly enriched for the experiences I've had."
Kelly has been an important face on Fox News for years, but her star grew even bigger this year when she was attacked by Donald Trump. As a moderator of the first Republican presidential debate in August 2015, Kelly asked Trump about his many denigrating comments toward women. "You’ve called women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals," she said.
Trump was not happy about being put in the spotlight for his sexism, and later tweeted about Kelly’s performance. On CNN, he said, "There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever." Of course, people took that to mean he was saying she was on her period. Not cool, Donald. (He said he meant her nose, but...that makes no sense.)
Kelly also played a part in the ouster of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. She was one of several women who accused him of sexually harassing them.
Her role as a young, powerful woman on a channel of mostly out-of-touch white men has made Kelly a kind of viral icon for women (though she doesn’t like the word feminism). But as cool as it is that she stood up to Trump and Ailes, Kelly is usually pretty on-message with the rest of Fox News. She’s insisted on air that Santa and Jesus were both white, and called a 14-year-old black girl who was slammed to the ground by police at a pool party "no saint either."
“Megyn is an exceptional journalist and news anchor, who has had an extraordinary career,” Andrew Lack, chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, said in a statement. “She’s demonstrated tremendous skill and poise, and we’re lucky to have her.”