Amazon Prime’s The Boys star Erin Moriarty angrily responded to podcaster Megyn Kelly accusing her of a plastic surgery “addiction” based on a viral post comparing one of her recent Instagram selfies to an earlier picture of the actress.
The actress was responding to a January 17 episode of The Megyn Kelly Show podcast, lamenting that “more and more young women” are getting surgeries to look like Kim Kardashian.
“She’s 29 years old, and she’s a beautiful actress, but she’s decided to completely change her face,” Kelly said of Moriarty, displaying a “before” photo of the actress.
“This is a picture of her before, which I think is relatively recent, within the past year or so. A very beautiful girl, so beautiful that she was becoming a very famous Hollywood actress, put on camera and on screen on multiple shows and movies,” Kelly said.
Kelly then displayed a photo of Moriarty from earlier this year, saying, “Now look at her. Look at that. She’s got the Kim Kardashian lips, she’s made her nose so skinny, it looks like a pencil now.”
“Not to pick on this Moriarty girl, but more and more young women are doing this,” Kelly said. “It’s not about an objection to plastic surgery, it’s about an obsession with turning yourself into this fake version of yourself.”
“I find it like a sign of mental illness,” she added. “I really want to get in the heads of these young girls and say, ‘Please don’t do this.'”
Kelly concluded by suggesting the actress is an “addict”:
Somebody needs to step in when you see that you’ve got an addict here, you know, like the same way that the bartender will say when the guy’s barfing at the end of the bar asking for another glass of scotch. “It’s time for you to stop, sir.” The plastic surgeon needs to say, “It’s time for you to stop, Madam.” Like, you’ve gone too far. This is an aesthetic that you’re going for. It should literally be a nip or a tuck. It shouldn’t be, like, this drastic makeover of already beautiful women who are obviously suffering mentally. That’s my own judgment. I realize I’m passing it, and it’s not my life to lead. It’s theirs I just feel like, I really hope this isn’t the truth for my daughter when she gets older. And I hope it’s not the truth for America’s daughters.
On social media, Moriarty emotionally responded to Kelly’s remarks — not expressly denying that she has had any cosmetic medical procedures recently but attributing the look of her viral selfie to makeup “contouring.”
“This is something I truly never anticipated writing. We’re all subject to levels of bulling [sic] throughout our lives but I am horrified, and I felt that I deserved to take a second to address these things,” she began in a lengthy statement posted to her Instagram account.
The actress went on to lament over what she called “one of the most challenging weeks of my life,” suggesting that she is used to being on the receiving end of “verbal abuse/accusations,” such as “drug use or just a flippant ‘eat a burger’ comment.”
“You learn to become Teflon and move on,” she said.
Moriarty went on to say that she “had NO idea what was going on this time,” referring to Kelly’s comments claiming that she had undergone some type of plastic surgery.
“To receive a message about a disgustingly false, counterproductive to the degree of being ironically misogynistic video of Megyn Kelly commenting on the manner — to learn the widespread nature of this has left me horrified,” the actress said.
“Megyn used a photo taken ‘a year ago’ according to her, that had in actuality been taken about a decade ago before I was of LEGAL DRINKING AGE (I’m about to be 30) as an example (maybe do some research that would take 30 seconds),” Moriarty added.
L-R: Erin Moriarty in November 2023, Erin Moriarty in January 2020. (Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for BoxLunch, Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images)
“How utterly misinformed, inaccurate, and clickbait seeking people who we follow and consider to be informed is appalling,” the Captain Fantastic star asserted.
Moriarty explained, “I got my make up done that day and it involves major contouring and I remember leaving and feeling pretty.”
The actress said that she had gotten her makeup done on a day that was particularly stressful for her.
“That day was an immensely stressful day for me. I came running to those girls and I showed up in tears after what had happened that day and I left feeling better simply because I felt like they had reduced my lack of sleep and worked their magic wands,” she said.
Moriarty, who has since deleted the photo in question from her Instagram, concluded, “I saw the comments, scathing enough to just turn my comments off. But this is becoming harassment. This is becoming false news.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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