Megyn Kelly has taken aim at Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, accusing him of “sexualizing infancy” after a contentious moment teased in the show’s newest season.
Euphoria—starring Zendaya, Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney—centres on a group of teenagers dealing with relationships, sex, mental health and addiction, and has built a reputation for being raw and, at times, difficult to watch.
Now, a scene connected to the third season has sparked renewed criticism, with some viewers arguing the series has pushed its shock value too far. Kelly is among the most high-profile voices to condemn it.
The latest chapter of the HBO drama is set five years after the end of season two, revisiting the characters as they confront the pressures and consequences of adult life.
In the new storyline, Sweeney’s character Cassie Howard launches an OnlyFans account, creating explicit content in an effort to help fund her wedding to Nate Jacobs (Elordi).
One clip tied to that plotline has drawn intense backlash. It shows Cassie recording content while styled to look like a baby—wearing a pink infant-like outfit, her hair in bunches, with a pacifier in her mouth and her legs spread.
The moment, which appears in the trailer, prompted Kelly to accuse Levinson of crossing a serious line.
In an episode of The Megyn Kelly Show on Tuesday (April 14), she said: “She’s dressed as a baby. She’s in a baby’s outfit, she’s sucking on a binkie, and her legs are completely spread. You can have a laugh, of course, because I shocked you, but the truth is this is sexualizing infancy. That’s what this is.”
Kelly also suggested Levinson has a habit of adding nude or highly sexualized material involving certain actresses even when, in her view, it doesn’t serve the narrative—an approach some detractors have described as a kind of “humiliation ritual.”
Overall reaction to season three has been mixed, and Kelly is not alone in arguing that the series’ sexual content has become increasingly extreme.
The baby-costume scene is also not the only Sweeney moment this season to cause a stir.
Another sequence features Cassie dressed as a puppy and held on a leash by Nate, who tells her “you’ve been a bad dog”.
Sweeney has not addressed the criticism head-on, though she did tell Entertainment Tonight: “I mean, Cassie’s a crazy character.”
Levinson, meanwhile, discussed the intent behind the “dog” sequence in comments to The Hollywood Reporter: “[Cassie] has got her dog house and her little dog ears and the nose, and that has its own humor, but what makes the scene is the fact that her housekeeper is the one filming it.
“What we wanted to always find is the other layer of absurdity that we’re able to tie into it so that we’re not too inside of her fantasy or illusion — the gag is to jump out, to break the wall.”
He added: “Some of these scenes we only lit with these ring lights that she would use… When you’re inside, it’s a beautiful, glowing front light, but then you jump out of it and it’s just a pool of light and everything surrounding it is dark. It’s just gnarly and jarring.
“We wanted to capture what she’s trying to show the audience and be inside of it, but then also pull back wider and see how depressing it is.”