Without Barbara Walters blazing the trail for women anchors, there would be no Megyn Kelly, and the ex-Fox News host made sure to mention that fact while recognizing the passing of Walters, who died at age 93 ahead of the New Year’s weekend. However, things took a surprisingly less reverent turn when Kelly started criticizing Walters’ parenting shortly after praising the late newswoman’s groundbreaking work.
“There is no question that this woman was a trailblazer in news and accomplished feats that would never really be matched and could never be matched,” Kelly said. “She made it in a time when women weren’t being taken seriously and when it was very hard to be considered as a serious news person, right? And all of us who have come in her wake owe her a debt of gratitude on that front.”
With that flowery introduction out of the way, Kelly started tearing into Walters being an absent mother to her adopted daughter. Via Mediaite:
“What I saw was an incredible person professionally. And I would never take one moment of that away from her. But a woman who completely fell down on the job when it came to her mothering.”
“It was jarring to me, her admissions about her own mothering and also what her book said without her seeming to realize it about her lane there as a mom. She talked about how she adopted a little girl named — she named her Jackie after Barbara’s sister. And the daughter never saw her mother,” Kelly added.
Kelly then took things even further by citing how Mike and Chris Wallace patched things up after the iconic 60 Minutes anchor confessed to being a “sh*tty father.” No such resolution happened with Walters, according to Kelly.
“My impression in reading the book was she was clueless about just how much damage she was inflicting on the child,” she said.
What a touching… tribute?
(Via Mediaite)