Megyn Kelly used a conservative podcast appearance to unload a series of damaging personal accusations against Donald Trump, claiming he has cheated on every wife he has ever had — and resurfacing a rape allegation made by his first wife, Ivana Trump, that was later retracted.
"Trump has cheated on every wife he's had," Kelly said on Friday's episode of the Hodgetwins Podcast. "He met Marla Maples while he was still married to the mother of his children, Ivana. It was all over the New York papers. Like he was proud of the affair!"
Kelly then went further, telling the hosts, "Ivana, his first wife, accused him of raping her" — before adding that she could not personally confirm the allegation. "I don't know whether that's true or not, but just saying, clearly not a great relationship there."
The allegation dates to a sworn deposition Ivana Trump gave during the couple's bitter 1990 divorce proceedings, in which she described a violent sexual encounter with her then-estranged husband. Though she used the word rape under oath, she later walked it back after the claim appeared in a 1993 book, saying she "felt violated" but did not want her words taken "in a literal or criminal sense." When the allegation resurfaced during Trump's first presidential campaign in 2015, she dismissed it as "totally without merit." Trump has long and adamantly denied the accusation.
Kelly's remarks were prompted by Trump's recent mockery of former counterterrorism chief Joe Kent for remarrying four years after his first wife, Navy officer Shannon Kent, was killed in combat. Kelly was unimpressed with Trump's moral standing to make that criticism.
"Talk about a glass house," she said.
She closed with a pointed remark about Trump's current marriage to Melania, telling listeners, "If you think Trump's been faithful to Melania, that's great. You've got bigger issues than I can solve here."
The comments represent a striking turn from Kelly, who spent years in Trump's orbit after leaving Fox News and had until recently maintained a complicated but largely friendly relationship with the president and his allies. Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels, though he has claimed he was unaware of the arrangement.