--- title: Celebrities Slam Megyn Kelly for Defending Blackface description: Celebrities are hitting back at Megyn Kelly for saying that she doesn't understand why blackface Halloween costumes are racist. canonical: https://time.com/5432303/megyn-kelly-blackface-reactions/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-23T19:54:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:55:36.309Z og:title: Megyn Kelly Slammed for Defending Blackface Halloween Costumes og:description: "What is racist?" Kelly asked. Celebrities were quick to answer. og:url: https://time.com/5432303/megyn-kelly-blackface-reactions/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9f3d2d0173c15dc/69893d3f86f68eed5b6ea7a4/megyn-kelly-blackface.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Megyn-Kelly-Blackface og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Megyn Kelly Slammed for Defending Blackface Halloween Costumes twitter:description: "What is racist?" Kelly asked. Celebrities were quick to answer. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9f3d2d0173c15dc/69893d3f86f68eed5b6ea7a4/megyn-kelly-blackface.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Celebrities Slam Megyn Kelly for Saying She Doesn't Understand Why Blackface Halloween Costumes Are Offensive > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Oct 23, 2018 7:54 PM UTC  Megyn Kelly speaks onstage at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit 2018 at Ritz Carlton Hotel on October 2, 2018 in Laguna Niguel, California. Megyn Kelly speaks onstage at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit 2018 at Ritz Carlton Hotel on October 2, 2018 in Laguna Niguel, California. Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Fortune  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Oct 23, 2018 7:54 PM UTC Celebrities are hitting back at [Megyn Kelly](http://time.com/5112430/megyn-kelly-jane-fonda-feud/) for saying that she doesn’t understand why [blackface](http://time.com/5296843/drake-blackface-photo-pusha-t/) [Halloween costumes](http://time.com/5429462/best-halloween-costumes-2018/) are racist. Kelly sparked near-immediate online backlash on Tuesday morning with comments she made during a roundtable discussion on offensive costumes on her talk show _Megyn Kelly_ _Today_. She apologized for the remarks following the segment. “What is racist?” she asked a panel that included Jenna Bush Hager, Jacob Soboroff and Melissa Rivers. “You do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface for Halloween, or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid, that was okay just as long as you were dressing as a character.” She later apologized in an e-mail to colleagues, according to the [Associated Press](https://www.apnews.com/13cf95315d2848ca992f7c7f16b899a3). “I realize now that such behavior is indeed wrong, and I am sorry. The history of blackface in our culture is abhorrent; the wounds too deep,” Kelly wrote. See the e-mail below. > [](https://twitter.com/TomKludt/status/1054819577836781568) Kelly had specifically spoken out in defense of [_Real Housewives_ _of New York_ star Luann de Lesseps](https://people.com/tv/luann-de-lesseps-apologizes-diana-ross-costume/), who came under fire for appearing to darken her skin to dress up as Diana Ross last year. “She dressed as Diana Ross and she made her skin look darker than it really is,” Kelly said. “People said that was racist! And I don’t know, like, I thought, like, ‘Who doesn’t love Diana Ross?’ She wants to look like Diana Ross for one day. I don’t know how that got racist on Halloween.” > [](https://twitter.com/tommyxtopher/status/1054725740476973057) Celebrities including Padma Lakshmi, W. Kamau Bell, and Patton Oswalt were quick to criticize Kelly for her remarks, with Oswalt noting that blackface was certainly not considered socially acceptable when he and Kelly were growing up. “Dear [@megynkelly](https://twitter.com/megynkelly) — you and I are approximately the same age,” he tweeted. “Blackface was NOT okay when we were kids. Take it from a big-hearted boy who just wanted to show his love for Nipsey Russell on the worst Halloween of my life.” > [](https://twitter.com/pattonoswalt/status/1054759947114672129) > [](https://twitter.com/PadmaLakshmi/status/1054746549627031554) > [](https://twitter.com/wkamaubell/status/1054781132988772352) Kelly previously caught similar flak for saying that [both Santa Claus and Jesus Christ were verifiably white](http://ideas.time.com/2013/12/18/jesus-wasnt-white-but-santa-definitely-is/) on a 2013 episode of her Fox News show, _The Kelly File_. See some more reactions to Kelly’s blackface comments below. > [](https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/1054755943270043648) > [](https://twitter.com/TheDweck/status/1054769465273905152) > [](https://twitter.com/louisvirtel/status/1054792038942572545) > [](https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/1054732964704194568) > [](https://twitter.com/Adaripp/status/1054772363563167744) > [](https://twitter.com/gilbertjasono/status/1054763148287328257) A spokesperson for Kelly did not respond immediately to TIME’s request for comment. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5432303/megyn-kelly-blackface-reactions/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5432303/megyn-kelly-blackface-reactions/"},"headline":"Celebrities Slam Megyn Kelly for Saying She Doesn't Understand Why Blackface Halloween Costumes Are Offensive","datePublished":"2018-10-23T19:54:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:55:36.309Z","description":"\"What is racist?\"","url":"https://time.com/5432303/megyn-kelly-blackface-reactions/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","viral","TV","Megyn Kelly","halloween 2018"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9f3d2d0173c15dc/69893d3f86f68eed5b6ea7a4/megyn-kelly-blackface.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9f3d2d0173c15dc/69893d3f86f68eed5b6ea7a4/megyn-kelly-blackface.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Megyn-Kelly-Blackface","caption":"Megyn Kelly speaks onstage at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit 2018 at Ritz Carlton Hotel on October 2, 2018 in Laguna Niguel, California.","creditText":"Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Fortune","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5432303/megyn-kelly-blackface-reactions/","name":"Celebrities Slam Megyn Kelly for Saying She Doesn't Understand Why Blackface Halloween Costumes Are Offensive"}}]}] ```