'The View' Hosts Call Megyn Kelly a 'Bully' Over Applegate Attack

Megyn Kelly attacked Christina Applegate over her multiple sclerosis misdiagnosis, and the hosts of "The View" spent a segment on October calling her out for it. Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin all took turns dismantling Kelly's comments, with Haines calling her a "bully" and Navarro comparing her to "a fungus that thrives" on manufactured outrage.

The row started on Kelly's own talk show. Reacting to Applegate's revelation that she had been misdiagnosed with MS, Kelly suggested the actress must be "crying now because I guess she no longer gets to be the face of this disease." She went further, framing Applegate's medical journey as a "wild goose chase" and describing it as "the problem with celebrities like wanting to lean into their health problems," as reported by Entertainment Weekly.

What did 'The View' hosts say?

Goldberg opened the counterattack with a direct question aimed at Kelly: "So, let me ask you, ma'am, you think Christina wanted to have MS so she could have a good time? Are you crazy?"

Haines pressed the same point. "Who wants to be the face of MS?" she asked, before expanding on what Applegate's advocacy actually meant. "Talk about kicking someone when they're down," Haines said. "She got a diagnosis and wanted to help other people. [She's] now feeling the pain of not knowing what her identity is and, more importantly, what her diagnosis is. Megyn Kelly sold her soul for politics. Which one did a better job here? She literally has sunk so low in my book."

Navarro took a broader view of why Kelly makes these kinds of comments. She said she didn't "even want to get into the Megyn Kelly of it all because I think she's like a fungus that thrives on oxygen that she gets by purposely creating outrage" on sensitive topics. Hostin kept her verdict short, calling Kelly "an ugly person."

Goldberg closed the segment by appealing to Kelly's basic empathy. "The idea that you would come out and say something like this, Megyn, is unbelievable, that you don't have the wherewithal to recognize that someone is saying, 'This is what's happening to me. That's how we get through our lives. We connect to each other. That's what this is about, and I'm going to connect to you and say rethink your position on this, because you're wrong," Goldberg said.

What happened to Christina Applegate?

The backstory matters here. Applegate announced her MS diagnosis in 2021. She retired from acting after the finale of her Netflix series "Dead to Me" wrapped the following year, and she became a prominent advocate for people with the disease. MS damages the central nervous system, and Applegate channeled her experience into the "MeSsy" podcast, which she co-hosts with Jamie-Lynn Sigler of "The Sopranos," who also lives with MS.

On October 21, after a seven-month break from the podcast, Applegate returned and broke down in tears while explaining what had happened. New technology, she told listeners, led doctors to discover she never had MS at all.

"This may come as great news, but to me, I'm back at square one," Applegate said. "It's hard to say that [my doctor] came into my room and she said, 'Congratulations, you don't have MS.' You don't get misdiagnosed and then all of the sudden I'm better. I haven't gotten better … If anything, I've gotten worse in some ways. So I'm back at square one, that I don't know what's going on with me."

She also described the guilt that came with the reversal, given how publicly she had championed the MS community. "It's weird because I feel like I let everybody down," she said. She said she remains in a "state of shock" and called the experience "a mindfuck, for sure."

What does this fight actually change?

Not much for Applegate medically, and that's the point the "The View" hosts were making. A misdiagnosis doesn't reverse the symptoms or the years of treatment — it just removes the name for them. Applegate still doesn't know what's causing her condition, and Kelly's mockery landed on a woman processing exactly that uncertainty in public. The exchange also shows how celebrity health disclosures now feed a parallel commentary economy: Applegate's tearful podcast return became fodder for Kelly's show within days, and "The View" segment reacting to Kelly's reaction then became its own story. Applegate, for her part, faces a new round of diagnostic uncertainty while her advocacy work — and the community she feared disappointing — largely continues to stand behind her.