(Opinion) Dear Megyn Kelly:
What you said is a slap in the face for many thousands of child rape survivors.
So that means me. I’m offended and angry.
In truth, it was more than a slap. It was a gut punch.
While purporting to explain how Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t really a pedophile, you said: “He was into the barely legal type, like he liked 15-year-old girls… He wasn’t into like 8-year-olds.”
Your tax-deductible gift supports our mission of reporting the truth and restoring the church. Donate $50 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you can elect to receive “Primal Fire: Reigniting the Church with the Five Gifts of Jesus” by Neil Cole, haga clic aquí.
Megyn Kelly in 2018: " There's no consenting for a 14 or even a 17 year old."
Megyn Kelly now: "Jeffrey Epstein…was not a pedophile…He was into the barely legal type, like he liked 15 year old girls…There's a difference between a 15 year old and a 5 year old." pic.twitter.com/en2ivDEAGk
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) November 14, 2025
I’ve tried to tell myself that it was a mindless, stupid thing. But of course, you aren’t a mindless person.
And as I feel my rage rising, I realize there’s just no way.
It wasn’t some in-the-moment slip-up, was it, Megyn? You know better. But you just thought you could spin it, and you were willing to throw child rape survivors under the bus to do it.
With your powerful platform, you decided to parse child sex abuse, to minimize the rape of adolescents, and to stick up for Jeffrey Epstein because – oh gee whiz – at least his victims weren’t 8.
Do you even hear yourself?
What you’re doing is child rape apologetics.
And it’s repugnant, despicable, morally reprehensible, and vile.
It also causes enormous harm. Yours is the kind of rhetoric that not only rubs salt in the wounds of child rape survivors but that also helps to perpetuate a culture in which child rape is often treated as no big deal.
I know way too much about that culture because I’ve been immersed in it for a lot of years in trying to raise awareness of, and bring accountability for, child sex abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention.
At age 15, when the grooming and gropings comenzó, I still had braces on my teeth. At age 16, when the abuse escalated into rapes, I still wore a retainer.
Él liked to watch as I took my retainer out of my mouth.
Does that sound to you like I was a “barely legal type”?
He was a full-grown adult man. He was a Southern Baptist pastor – a voice of authority – a representative of God. He was married. He was a father.
I complied. I obeyed. I submitted to pastoral authority.
I did what I’d been taught I needed to do to please God.
And he ended every rape by saying, “God loves you, Christa.”
Other grown men – pastors, too – knew. They did nothing.
It was as though everyone thought the same as you, Megyn – at least I wasn’t 8. Everyone found ways to minimize it.
Take a look at that photo, Megyn. I still wore hairbows!
And here I am about a year after the gropings began and after having already endured at least 30 rapes.
I’m dressed in my Girls’ Auxiliary Queen Regent in Service regalia – the pinnacle of achievement for a good Southern Baptist girl.
But do I look like a grown-up to you???
I was NOT the “barely legal type.”
I was a child. I was naïve. I was trusting. I was faith-filled.
And he wielded my faith against me as a weapon.
Of course, that’s what child predators do. They find a child’s vulnerability and they manipulate and exploit it.
If you would educate yourself a bit on the grooming process, maybe you would better understand this.
Always and unrelentingly, I hope with all my heart that no other child will experience the horror of what was done to me. And yet, I also wonder how you would feel if such a thing was done to a child you know and love.
Would you say, “At least she wasn’t 8”?
I hope not.
The pain and horror of what was done to me as a kid is forever lodged in my mind and in my body. This is what child rape does to its victims.
Except really… it’s far, far worse than I can ever express.
No matter how hard I try, I find that words are never adequate to reflect the reality of the sordid technicolor reels that live in my head.
And words can never really reflect the full weight of harm that being sexually exploited and raped as a child caused in my life – the countless suicidal nights and the endless months trying to claw my way toward self-worth.
No, Megyn. I was NOT the “barely legal type.”
I was a child. And for ALL children, rape is an abomination.
Please stop minimizing it, making excuses, parsing what’s a pedophile, and carrying water for child rapists.
Atentamente,
christa marrón
This commentary, which was originally published at In Solidarity and reprinted with permission, does not necessarily reflect the views of The Roys Report.
Christa Brown is the author of Baptistland: A Memoir of Abuse, Betrayal, and Transformation y This Little Light: Beyond a Baptist Preacher Predator and His Gang. Christa, who is a retired appellate attorney, a mom, and a grandma, lives with her husband in Colorado.
Spanish 
English
18 Responses
I guess Megyn Kelly does not under the concept of statutory rape, or Mann Act violations. But then Kelly is a MAGA-Trump fan, so she is just taking a page from Trump and his allies’ playbook to defend her Orange Dear Leader.
Thank you, Christa. Your words, your work, and your book, all attend to the pain that sexual abuse leaves behind in its victims. Especially when the perpetrators are supposed men of faith and men with unchecked power. You are a warrior for many.
I’m so sorry Christa for what you went through. Unspeakable sin that so-called Pastor did and may he burn in hell. I know what it feels like. For me it was soul-murder. Where was Jesus throughout all of it? I do not know. I do not understand. I was innocent and pure. Why didn’t God stop it? But I still believe in Jesus.
I still believe judgement will come to the perp. but I don’t know when. Why does it take God so long to correct the wrongs done to us? I do not know. I do not understand, but I still believe in Jesus.
I have to believe He loves me. As the hymn goes…”We’ll understand it better by and by.” In the meantime we maintain and live. Suicide is not an option. I’m a grandmother, but the images are still fresh in my mind.
We don’t understand, we don’t know why it happened, but we believe all things WILL work together for our good. God will pay them back. I’d like vindication now, but it hasn’t come yet. One day it will.
But still illegal in most states.
Correct. It is still a felony and will get one put on the sex offender registry.
There’s no way we’re at the “tEcHnIcAllY iT’s ePheBopHilIA” stage.
Age and/or Body Developement makes NO difference in the Legality, or the Sheer Evil, of a pedophile’s actions!!!
But what Megan Kelly was actually saying may require as a second look.
*I watched the clip in the link you posted. Megan was speaking of someone else: She even emphasized three times ” IN THIS PERSON’s VIEW.”
*The headline for the clip has ellipses. Her words and presumed ntention have not been quoted with integrity.
*In another very recent podcast Megan Kelly is on record saying the Exact Opposite: She was declaring intensely that there is no such thing as “barely legal” – Illegal is Illegal. (Shouldn’t be too difficult for anyone to find. )
Was her point perhaps to report that there may not be any Testimony of Epstein physically abusing children under 14?
Was she trying to give information of what he was actually “sexually into” – as a point of (prurient) interest? Everyone with eyes can recognize that there is a visual and developemental difference between a 5 year old and a 15 year old. She never said that makes it less evil or illegal. She said he was into the very young teen types.
Your statement may be grammatically accurate, but that’s missing the author’s point — sexual abuse is horrific and leaves lifelong scars on the souls of victims. Let’s not minimize its impacts by arguing over technicalities of specific ages.
Welcome to celebrities. Give them enough rope and they will hang themselves with it. I prefer a world without them. I do not worship them. I see people making themselves one in Christendom and I see a fall in their future. I am still trying to find one who is humble. But being one tends to make the head bigger and bigger over time. Selfish ambition is not a fruit of the Spirit, but of the flesh so why does almost every Christian I have ever met look up to these people or used to at least? It is just the old idolatry preferring a god we can see to the One whom we cannot see.
I am sorry for your pain but Megyn Kelly is a journalist and commentator and a diatribe towards her is not going to change what happened to you nor will it change her legal understanding of Pedophilia. I wish you peace and healing.
julia-
The word “but”, by definition, negates what is said before it. Therefore “I’m sorry, but” means you aren’t. I doubt that’s what you intended, so just making you aware.
Megyn is definitely a commentator, yet someone who has no fewer than 60 videos “commenting” on Meghan Markle ALONE isn’t a convincing journalist.
“Megyn is definitely a commentator, yet someone who has no fewer than 60 videos “commenting” on Meghan Markle ALONE isn’t a convincing journalist.”
In other words she excels at Yellow Journalism.
When you’re parsing clinical definitions around sex with minors, you’re on the wrong moral side of things. These definitions are useful in clinical environments to treat people, but it’s gross when they’re used to minimize the crime happening, which is what Megyn Kelly was doing.
it’s a distinction without a difference- it’s still grown men having sex with children who cannot legally, ethically, or morally consent.
That’s it? That’s all you can say to a victim’s anguish? How do you even look in the mirror? Do you even have a reflection?
It is called Hebephilia, attraction to those past puberty but legally underage “jail bait”.
Pedophilia proper refers to attraction to pre-pubescents.
Since human brain and personality development lags behind physical sexual maturity (especially with the historically-early puberty we have today), Hebephile predators have a prey-rich environment full of easy to manipulate and trap prey.
There is also something I heard once that you are sexually attracted to those of the same chronological age as your own psychological age. If true, this suggests Arrested Development (rampant today) is probably somewhere in the mix.
Hi Christa – thank you so much for your vulnerability. I am not sure it will be of any comfort, but know that MANY of us see through Megyn Kelly’s “schtick.” She wavers based on the narrative she wants to tell and/or justify. A few examples:
– At matter of months ago, Megyn mocked Sydney Sweeney for being famous solely for her “figure”; after conservatives rallied around Sydney’s American Eagle ad (and it being revealed Sydney is a registered Republican), Megyn shifted to saying she has “immense respect” for Sydney and blames any moves she disapproves of on “the leftists in Sydney’s ear”.
– A mere search of Megyn’s social media shows her making positive comments about Beyonce and Taylor Swift’s careers over the years. Now that both ladies have come out as supporting Democrats, Megyn has shifted to reviling them, now saying that Jay Z bought Beyonce’s popularity and saving her most expletive-laden rants for Taylor.
– Early in her career, Megyn acknowledged the doors Oprah and Barbara Walters opened for women in news and media; as both women have more openly supported progressive causes and candidates later in their career, whenever their names come up, Megyn sets aside segments of her podcast to vent about how “useless” they are.
Notice the pattern here? I have a hypothesis that Megyn is trying to soften the blow of whatever the Epstein files will reveal about Trump and other conservatives. So pay it little mind and know that the truth is the truth, no matter how it is “spun” or who is exposes.
Dios lo bendiga.
Christa, thank you for responding to the ‘Church’ and their ignorance of what happens when people view p*rn in any form ( through social media, chat rooms, groups, phone numbers, the internet, television, or books/magazines ). People within all denominations need to open their eyes to the destruction of this addiction. It is degrading to both females and males ( this also happens to males, by both males and females ), makes them objects, to be lied to, emotionally and physically abused, groomed, raped, s*xually transmitted diseases, and killed. This addiction IS a disease. Workers in nursing homes and in day cares are molesting and rapping the oldest to the youngest people, due to the addict “not being able to be satisfied anymore.” Most of all educate yourselves about the addiction, and STOP enabling these leaders and others. God sees and knows ALL THINGS. Each of you covering for those abusers, WILL also have to answer to God. Forgiveness takes years/decades of healing through a daily recovery/maintenance for the rest of your life. You will never forget.
For Megyn Kelly to minimize the circumstances of Epstein’s victims is despicable. After listening to the video with her ‘opinion’ with her giggling co-host was disgusting.