It has been three weeks since Donald Trump nominated Army National Guard veteran and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be the next secretary of defense. In that time, a myriad of accusations ranging from sexual assault to financial mismanagement have anonymously leaked out against him.
Hegseth has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill to meet with members of the U.S. Senate ahead of the confirmation hearing process, but he has not spoken publicly about any of the allegations until now.
On Wednesday’s show, Hegseth joined Megyn for an exclusive interview to discuss the accusations against him, including a 2017 rape claim and subsequent settlement with an unnamed accuser. He shed more light on what he told police in a now public report, why he settled, and how his life has changed since then.
The Accusation
Back in October 2017, police in Monterey, California, conducted an investigation involving Hegseth in response to a sexual assault allegation by a woman who remains anonymous. ‘Jane Doe’ was Hegseth’s ‘handler’ at a National Federation of Republican Women event where he was a keynote speaker.
Megyn took a thorough look at the police report – which was made public for the first time late last month – in episode 954, but she ran through the top-line argument on Wednesday. “The allegation is that you were the keynote speaker at a Republican women’s conference, that you were drinking into the wee hours, that a female so-called ‘handler’ of yours… went back to your room with you to shepherd you there, the she found herself inside the room, and that you allegedly blocked the door,” she explained. “She quote ‘remembers saying no a lot’ and, the next thing she knew, things got very fuzzy and you allegedly raped her with her husband and children in their own hotel room down the hall.”
As Megyn explained, the Monterey Police Department investigated and the district attorney did not bring charges. That decision was likely made due to key details from Hegseth and the accuser’s husband. “We found out from the police report certain exonerating details, which none of the media will report,” Megyn said. “You said it was consensual… and she wasn’t she wasn’t drugged in any way. She is on camera looking totally fine, according to the police, according to eyewitnesses, and according to her own husband to whose room she returned at 4am.”
The husband told police his wife seemed fine and was not slurring or stumbling. Instead, she apologized to him for being out late and claimed she fell asleep in someone else’s hotel room. That is what Hegseth told police Jane Doe told him she was going to tell her husband. “That is the setup for those who have not been paying attention,” Megyn noted.
Hegseth Responds
When Megyn asked Hegseth if he raped a woman at a hotel in Monterey, he said “absolutely not” and reiterated he has “been honest about that encounter – starting with law enforcement – from the beginning” because he remembered the situation well.
“I may have been drinking, but I was cognizant enough to remember every single detail,” he said. “I went through that process with investigators eyes wide open and honest because I knew I had nothing to hide… And ultimately, they dug into everything… they looked into it and said, ‘No way. We’re not charging on this at all.'”
Hegseth made clear, however, that he is not proud of the “unfortunate” situation. “I’m not here to say that my conduct was good. You know, being in a hotel room with someone that is not the person you’re with is not okay,” he shared. “I own up to that, and I’ve had to own up to that, and that has been difficult. And my wife is amazing, and she knew about it. But going through it again is not easy.”
The Settlement
Last month, Hegseth’s attorney, Timothy Parlatore, confirmed a Washington Post report that the Army vet had reached a confidential settlement agreement to deter his accuser from filing a lawsuit. “The reality is that, had they filed [a lawsuit], civil process takes quite a while, and so Fox News likely would have fired him based on the allegation,” Parlatore told CBS News. He said the woman “knew that simply filing it would cause an immediate horror storm for” his client.
Hegseth told Megyn he did what he felt like he had no choice. “I paid her because I had to – or at least I thought I did at the time,” he explained. “I had a great job at Fox and a wonderful marriage… It is not what I should have done, but I did it to protect that. I did it to protect my wife, I did it to protect my family, and I did it to protect my job. It was a negotiation purely to try to prevent that.”
He said the accuser’s attorney reached out to his lawyer and said she would publicly disclose her allegations unless she was paid. “We paid a sum. I’m not going to disclose that amount,” Hegseth shared. “You don’t expect to go through something like that. You obviously feel like you’re being used because of your public profile. There are plenty of people that have gone through that.”
Then and Now
Megyn has previously shared how her audience feels about Hegseth’s nomination. While there was unanimous agreement that the rape allegation was not credible, a good portion took issue with his history of infidelity.
“I think it’s admitted – at least in your divorce proceedings – that you did cheat in your first two wives. You are on your third marriage to Jen, a former colleague of my own at Fox and yours too, and your hook up with this woman in Monterey happened when you were with Jen,” Megyn noted. “And there are a lot of [people] who will be like… how can we put a guy in this position who is a serial cheater?”
When Megyn asked Hegseth is that is “a fair characterization,” he admitted it once was. “I think it would have been,” he said. “It was a fair characterization of me before I truly was changed by Jen and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and I mean that.”
Hegseth said he was raised Christian but “never really lived it” until more recently. “Am I a perfect man? No. Was I a perfect man? Absolutely not. Do I regret those things? Yes. Is it who I am today? No,” he shared. “And I’m just grateful for the grace of God that gives me a new chapter.”
He said he knew that accepting Trump’s nomination would lead to scrutiny, but it was a decision he made with his family. “My wife and I got together, we prayed about it a lot, and said we know the slings and arrows are coming. We’re going to lock shields. That’s why we’re together on [Capitol Hill]. We’re together everywhere in this process,” Hegseth explained. “Because if we can’t do this together, then it’s not worth doing. And having that assurance in Christ and with a partner – where this is ride or die for the rest of our life, no matter what – is life changing… I’ve never had that perspective before.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Hegseth by tuning in to episode 957 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.