Sydney Sweeney doesn’t need to do much to make headlines these days, but going bra-less in a sheer dress on the red carpet is definitely one way to attract attention.
The actress was one of the honorees at Variety’s Power of Women gala held at the Beverly Hills Hotel Wednesday night, and she turned heads in a see-through crystal down from Christian Cowan and Elias Matso’s spring 2026 collection that put one of her most prominent assets on fully display.
On Thursday’s show, Megyn was joined by Allie Beth Stuckey, host of Relatable, to discuss the provocative dress and why they were not fans of the look.
The Dress
After slamming Glamour UK for featuring transgender people on the cover of its “Women of the Year” issue, Megyn and Stuckey both agreed that seeing a beautiful, real woman like Sweeney is a breath of fresh air.
“Sydney Sweeney is all woman, real woman, actual woman, and absolutely stunning,” Megyn noted. “[But] she decided to show off her number one asset, which – contrary to the American Eagle jeans ad – is not really her jeans. It’s her enormous breasts, which are spectacular. No one would take that away from her.”
While Megyn said the look is being “universally celebrated online,” she called the nearly naked number a “rare misstep” for the star. “Controversial opinion: I object to this. I disapprove of the dress she wore because it’s completely see through. You can see her entire nipples,” she explained. “She reminded me of Kim Kardashian, who over shares and then takes away like the thing that is the sexiest, which is… leaving a little to the imagination.”
Stuckey agreed. “She is absolutely beautiful, and no one at all is trying to deny that. But, I mean, I am definitely pro-modesty,” she shared. “It’s not that I’m pro-burqa, but I think that we should do everything we can to draw the eyes to the beauty of the face. There’s nothing wrong with a womanly figure. I think that God made it, it is beautiful, and there’s a way to dress that with dignity and respect.”
Her advice: “I feel like we could draw the line at areola,” she joked.
The Naked Truth
Sweeney is obviously not the only star to put her body on display in this way. Megyn pointed to Kanye West’s wife Bianca Censori and Lauren Sánchez as the most extreme examples, but there are plenty of other celebrities who have revealed plenty. “Why did these otherwise stunning women who would get plenty of attention just by wearing a great, well-styled dress and having their hair and makeup done…feel the need to take it here,” she wondered.
Stuckey believes there are a number of reasons. “I think maybe on an individual level, it’s probably as superficial as just liking the attention, liking how they look in the mirror, knowing that they are going to be written positively about,” she said.
Given Sweeney’s recent controversies, Stuckey posited there could have been some kind of PR angle. “Maybe Sydney Sweeney has just been like, ‘Okay, I’m going to be a lightning rod and I’m going to cause controversy,'” Stuckey theorized. “Maybe her PR people have decided that that’s a good thing.”
And then there is the larger cultural context. “On a macro cultural level, you could say that it is a big pendulum swing to the other side,” Stuckey explained. “On the one hand, you have ‘men can be women,’ ‘there is no definition of a woman,’ ‘femininity is something that is weak,’ and ‘a white, cis, hetero woman should never be on the cover of any magazine.’ So, maybe it’s a little bit of a swing of Sydney Sweeney saying, ‘I’m hot; I know I’m hot; I know people think I’m hot; and I don’t really care.'”
Ultimately, Megyn thinks Sweeney is still finding her way. “She is only like 26 and I guarantee you somebody brought the dress to her and was like, ‘Now we’ll take it next level.’ She trusted the wrong person and, before you knew it, we had all seen it,” she noted. “It’s not going to hurt her at all. It’s just people like us who, I think, were becoming her new fans, were like, ‘Okay, that wasn’t the move.'”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Stuckey by tuning in to episode 1,183 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.