NBC News, Megyn Kelly’s Lawyer Trade Barbs in Public as Exit Talks Drag On

Network pulled former Fox News star’s “Megyn Kelly Today” off the air last week

Megyn Kelly
NBC

The exit talks between Megyn Kelly and NBC News are turning ugly, with both Kelly’s lawyer and the network criticizing each other publicly.

After Kelly’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, slammed NBC News for “allowing the media to run with completely false and irresponsible reports that disparage Megyn,” NBC News responded with a statement of its own.

“Unlike Mr. Freedman, who has repeatedly commented to the media throughout the negotiations, we respect the confidentiality of the process, and will have no comment until it reaches its conclusion,” a network spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday.

Freedman was taking umbrage with media reports over the past few days regarding Kelly’s exit negotiations, including one in the Daily Mail that claimed Kelly was looking to recoup the full $69 million that was reportedly in her three-year contract, plus an additional $10 million as part of her exit package.

The now-former “Megyn Kelly Today” host has been working on her exit from the network following the outcry over her comments last week about wearing “blackface” on Halloween. Last Friday, NBC announced she would not return to host her 9 p.m. hour of “Today.”

“Despite my efforts to handle this process confidentially, NBC News is allowing the media to run with completely false and irresponsible reports that disparage Megyn by erroneously claiming she has ever asked for more money than her contract requires,” Freedman said in a statement, per The Daily Beast’s Max Tani. “If NBC News is not the source then they have a responsibility as a news division to correct these false claims. Or are they somehow attempting to use these fabrications for some fictitious advantage in the discussions we’re having? If Andy Lack has lost control, my hope would be that Steve Burke can step in and not permit blatant lies about our discussions to remain uncorrected.”

Freedman did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

Kelly herself also took a dig at the media on Wednesday, though she did not address her exit talks with NBC News.

“For a week paparazzi has been lurking outside my home day & nite. Finally today I took my kids to school. I went out alone 1st, offered them donuts &begged them to just take their pic of me & to leave my kids alone when they emerged. All were nice. Except the Dailymail…” she wrote on her twitter account. “The DailyMail 1st published photos of my husb IN OUR HOME & then *did* photog my kids, trailed us to my daughter’s school, & secretly videotaped my 7-yr-old child (her classmates too) & posted it. THIS IS NOT RIGHT.”

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