Megyn Kelly Says Sydney Sweeney Is Being Picked on for One Big Reason

Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly is sticking up for Sydney Sweeney after backlash to the actress’ new ad for the sports prediction market Novig, in which she appears practically naked. And Kelly is saying that Sweeney is being picked on for one big reason.

The commercial for the betting company features Sweeney posing nude and using sports equipment to cover parts of her naked body. “Novig is just sports… No betting on wars or deaths and no politics. Just you, your takes, and sports,” the Euphoria star says in the ad.

Some critics and female athletes slammed the commercial as “inappropriate,” “disgusting,” and “oversexualizing” women in sports. However, Kelly disagreed with the backlash, arguing that people are only mad because Sweeney is a registered Republican.

“I don’t get it,” Kelly said on a recent edition of her SiriusXM program The Megyn Kelly Show, per the New York Post. “Since the dawn of time, we’ve been selling sports to men by using sexy women in ads that air during the sporting events, in the bars where they watch the sporting events, in products around the sporting events.”

Kelly said it isn’t controversial that “men tend to like sports and beer and sexy women… until now, until this year, until Sydney Sweeney is the woman, I guess, who is a registered Republican and did the controversial jeans ad, so she must be punished.”

The former Today host was referencing Sweeney’s American Eagle jeans commercial, which also led to backlash, with critics arguing that its riff on “genes” and “jeans” promoted white supremacy.

Sweeney, who was registered as a Republican as of June 2024, has not commented on her political affiliations, nor has she publicly endorsed President Donald Trump.

Kelly also commented on the female athletes criticizing Sweeney’s new ad, saying they are arguing against something the actress never said. “She never purported to be a woman in sports,” Kelly stated. “She never said this is what a woman in sports looks like. She just said, ‘Sports. Sports. This is sports.'”

The longtime news reporter also said that it would be a “tragedy” if Sweeney “didn’t occasionally show off that body,” adding, “If I looked like that, I’d be doing nude ads too.”

She went on to say that “When you have that person emerge in 2026, almost 2027, America, she has to be shamed. Why again? Because she’s a Republican.”

While Kelly is okay with Sweeney showing off her body, she recently said the opposite about Paradise star Shailene Woodley. Speaking on Woodley’s low-cut Emmys dress, Kelly said, “Unless you’ve got, like, an absolutely stunning rack, it’s probably not a great idea to show that much of the boobs.”