Early life

Kelly was born in Syracuse, New York, to Edward Kelly, who taught education at the State University of New York at Albany, and Linda, a homemaker. She is of Italian descent on her mother's side and Irish descent on her father's. Kelly's father died when she was 15 years old.

Kelly attended Tecumseh Elementary School, in DeWitt, New York. At age 9, her family moved to the Albany, New York suburb of Delmar, where she attended Bethlehem Central High School. After high school, she obtained an undergraduate degree in political science at Syracuse University and earned a J.D. from Albany Law School in 1995.

Career

In law

Kelly was an associate in the Chicago office of law firm Bickel & Brewer LLP, during which time she co-wrote an article for the American Bar Association's journal, Litigation, called "The Conflicting Roles of Lawyer as Director". She later joined Jones Day for nine years, where one of her clients was the credit bureau Experian.

In television

In 2003, Kelly moved to Washington, D.C., where she was hired by the ABC affiliate WJLA-TV as a general assignment reporter. While there, she covered significant national and local events, including live coverage of the confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. and Chief Justice John G. Roberts; the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor; the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist; and the 2004 presidential election. After working as a journalist for WJLA, Kelly then applied for a job at Fox News Channel in 2004. CNN president Jonathan Klein would later regret not gaining Kelly as a reporter in the beginning of her career, as she was "the one talent you’d want to have from somewhere else".

Kelly contributed legal segments for Special Report with Brit Hume and hosted her own legal segment, Kelly's Court, during Weekend Live. She appeared on a weekly segment on The O'Reilly Factor and occasionally filled in for Greta Van Susteren on On the Record, where most of her reporting focused on legal and political matters. She occasionally contributed as an anchor, but more often as a substitute anchor on weekends. On February 1, 2010, Kelly began hosting her own two-hour show, America Live, replacing Fox News' previous show The Live Desk. She has been a guest-panelist on Fox News' late-night satire program Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld. In 2010, viewership for America Live increased by 20%, averaging 1,293,000 viewers, and increased by 4% in the 25-54 age demographic, averaging 268,000 viewers.

Kelly received media attention for her coverage of the results of the 2012 United States presidential election. On November 6, 2012, the night of the election, Fox News projected that Obama would win a second term after part of the results had been released. In response to Karl Rove's opposition to this projection, Kelly asked Rove, "Is this just math that you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better? Or is this real?"

Kelly left as host of America Live in the beginning of July 2013 for maternity leave and began hosting The Kelly File on October 7, 2013. The Kelly File was the highest-rated cable news program of August 2015.

In December 2013, remarks made by Kelly in reaction to a Slate article drew controversy. On The Kelly File, she said, "For all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white, but this person is just arguing that maybe we should also have a black Santa," adding, "But Santa is what he is, and just so you know, we’re just debating this because someone wrote about it." Kelly also stated that Jesus was a white man later in the segment. Soon after, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Rachel Maddow, Josh Barro, and others satirized her remarks. Two days later, she made additional on-air statements, characterizing her original comments as "tongue-in-cheek", and that the skin color of Jesus is "far from settled".

In June 2015, Kelly interviewed Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle Duggar of 19 Kids and Counting regarding their son Josh Duggar's alleged molestation of five girls in 2002. She later interviewed two of their daughters, Jill and Jessa. This show's Nielsen national estimates ratings of 3.09 million viewers, above its average 2.11 million, ranked with the 3.2 million for the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 coverage and 7.3 million for the Ferguson riots coverage.

In March 2016, it was announced that Kelly will host a one-hour prime time special on the Fox Broadcasting Company, wherein she will interview celebrities from the worlds of "politics, entertainment, and other areas of human interest." The special aired in May 2016, which is a sweeps month.

Moderator of Republican presidential debates

In the Republican Party presidential debate on August 6, 2015, Kelly asked whether a man of Trump's temperament ought to be elected president. Kelly's moderating generated a range of media and political reactions. Kelly responded to Trump's criticism by saying she would not "apologize for doing good journalism". Trump declined to attend the Iowa January 28 debate that she moderated. After the debate and off-camera, Kelly referred to Trump as "Voldemort". Bill Maher complimented Kelly as being "so much better" than the candidates who attended the January 28 debate and argued that she was a more viable candidate for the Republican nomination. In an interview with CBS News Sunday Morning, Kelly reflected that she was disappointed with the lack of support she received from coworker Bill O'Reilly and CNN, the latter airing a Trump event the same time as the debate. In April, at her request, Kelly met with Trump at Trump Tower, having "a chance to clear the air".

Writing

In February 2016, Kelly signed with HarperCollins to write a book scheduled for release later that year. The book's title is named 'Settle for More.' The book deal is worth more than $10 million.

Accolades

She was included in the 2014 Time list of the 100 most influential people.

Kelly appeared on the cover of the February 2016 issue of Vanity Fair.

Personal life

Kelly married Daniel Kendall, an anesthesiologist, on September 29, 2001. That marriage ended in divorce in 2006.

On March 1, 2008, she married Douglas Brunt, then President and CEO of Authentium, who became a full-time writer and novelist. They have three children.

Politically, Kelly identifies as an independent, and has voted for both Democrats and Republicans.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]