Christina Ricci publicly criticized Megyn Kelly this week, accusing the media host of downplaying Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes and putting children at risk.
The Yellowjackets actress spoke out on Instagram after Kelly discussed Epstein’s behavior during a recent episode of The Megyn Kelly Show.
In that segment, Kelly had reviewed emails released by the House Oversight Committee between Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and involving several public figures.
Highlights
- Christina Ricci condemned Megyn Kelly for minimizing Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, calling her a 'danger to children' on Instagram.
- Kelly claimed Epstein wasn’t a pedophile, saying he preferred 'barely legal' 15-year-olds over younger children, sparking backlash.
- Users on X protested Kelly’s comments, emphasizing that sex with a 15-year-old is still criminal and harmful under #iWasFifteen.
Christina Ricci criticized Megyn Kelly for downplaying Epstein’s crimes
Image credits: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images
While discussing the documents, Kelly repeated claims she said came from someone “very close to this [Epstein’s] case.” According to Kelly, that source insisted Epstein “was not a pedophile.”
“This is this person’s view, who was there for a lot of this, but he was into the barely legal type. Like, he liked 15-year-old girls,” Kelly argued.
Image credits: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Kelly then argued that Epstein wasn’t into “8-year-olds,” but preferred “very young teen types.”
She added that there was a difference between a five-year-old and a 15-year-old victim, even though she called the entire topic “disgusting.”
Ricci reacted strongly after seeing the remarks circulating online. In an Instagram Story, she wrote, “This woman is a danger to children.”
Image credits: Instagram/riccigrams
The post said, “There's definitely a difference between a 5-year-old and a 15-year-old. But that difference is not ‘whether or not sleeping with them makes you a pedophile.’”
Image credits: Instagram/riccigrams
Kelly emphasized during the podcast that she was not trying to excuse Epstein’s actions, saying she was “just giving... facts.”
She said she believed for years that Epstein targeted girls around 15, until Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed the FBI had reviewed “tens of thousands” of videos described as child sexual abuse material found on Epstein’s computer.
Kelly said Bondi’s account made her reconsider and think “for the first time” that Epstein may have been “an actual pedophile.”
But she soon questioned Bondi’s credibility on the matter, saying, “I mean, only a pedophile gets off on young children abuse videos. She’s never clarified it, I don’t know whether it’s true.”
Ricci called out Kelly for her comments on Epstein and said Kelly is a ‘danger to children’
Epstein faced federal charges in 2019 for sex trafficking of minors. Prosecutors said his victims were as young as 14. He allegedly died by suicide in a New York jail that August while awaiting trial.
Kelly’s latest remarks generated swift backlash on X, where users accused her of minimizing abuse by focusing on the ages of Epstein’s victims.
One person reminded Kelly that “adult sex with a 15-year-old is a criminal sex offense (ie, rape) in every place in the United States.”
Image credits: Emily Michot/Getty Images
Another responded, “I want Megyn Kelly to say this to a 15-year-old victim’s face. I want her to look that child in the eye and say it’s less bad.”
Following Kelly’s remarks, the hashtag #iWasFifteen began trending. Women used the hashtag and shared photos of themselves at 15 to put their age into perspective.
Image credits: Steven Ferdman/Getty Images
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live earlier this year, Ricci had revealed an assault incident from when she was 11. She recalled how she and her friends would prank call a Mattress hotline.
“We prank-called them so much we ended up having a regular guy we’d talk to named Jared,” she said.
But when her friend gave the man her home address, “he sent a picture of his penis in the mail,” Ricci said. She then said none of the girls alerted their parents or the police.
Actress Melissa Gilbert also took to Instagram to share her own story from when she was 15 years old.
Gilbert, known for her role in Little House, when she was 10 years old, said she looked herself up online following the trending hashtag and found some images of her kissing her love interest on the show, Dean Butler. Butler was 23 at the time, while Gilbert was 15.
“I am actually nauseated,” Gilbert wrote. “The girl on vacation in Hawaii with her family, is the same girl who was expected to ‘fall in love with’ and kiss a man on film who was several years older than she was.
“Through the lens of today, this is shocking. I have no words other than to say, ‘I WAS A CHILD. I WAS FIFTEEN.’”
Users shared images of themselves at 15 under the #iWasFifteen hashtag to illustrate how young that age is
She added, “And I was the good news. Thank God my mom and Michael [Landon] and so many others were there to make sure I was safe. Can you imagine if I hadn’t had them all? I am so fortunate (Sort of). Many other young women aren’t.”