On Wednesday, Jimmy Kimmel Live! co-executive producer, co-head writer, and Kimmel’s wife, Molly McNearney, gave a speech at a Women In Entertainment event for The Hollywood Reporter that was a bizarre combination of outrageous and deeply weird. On everything from Kimmel’s suspension to immigration to abortion to racism, McNearney painted a dire picture of life in Trump’s America, but her liberal audience need not worry because “perimenopause rage is gonna save us and get all those freedoms back.”
Early on in her speech, McNearney declared, “I've been asked to speak about freedom of speech, and I have to be honest, I naively assumed it was a guarantee in this country until September 16, 2025. It's something that I took for granted. It's something I thought I'd always have. Like my period. Did you guys know that those just stop? They just stop.”
After a digression about Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, McNearney continued:
Okay, anyway, your period stops, you guys, it stops and it turns out that some freedoms in this country can too. Who knew? we experienced it most recently in 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and we got another taste of it two months ago. I watched a show and coworkers and friends and a man I love be put on ‘indefinite suspension’ after our very thin-skinned president asked for his removal and for his FCC chair to publicly threaten the company that we work for. It is a fragile time for freedom. When I sat down to write about freedom of speech, ironically, I did not know what to say.
Of course, McNearney didn’t care to explain the actual reason why Kimmel was suspended. Nevertheless, she also claimed, “Then it occurred to me in my anxious and frazzled state, this is exactly how we lose our freedom. With perimenopause. No, no, that's not true. If anything, perimenopause rage is gonna save us and get all those freedoms back.”
Waxing poetic, she added, “We lose our freedom when we are scared and when we are distracted. And I have been very consumed by both. Fear is contagious. But the good news is. So is bravery. I have watched Jimmy and my friends and my co-workers. I've watched them hold our leaders accountable without fear, night after night. I've watched other late night shows and journalists and lawyers and activists and politicians and civilians in the street stick their neck out there for all of us.”
McNearney also tried to instill a sense of purpose in the audience, “Whether you like it or not, God or the universe, or Oprah chose you to live in this time, in this moment, together with other people chosen by God or the universe or Oprah or maybe even Steadman.”
For McNearney that purpose is to speak up for the:
Women not lucky enough to be in this room, outside these walls, who desperately need us to use our hard won freedom of speech. There's a woman out there who is separated from her children by masked men right here on our streets and sent to a country she does not call home. She needs our voice. There is a woman who is not going to be able to afford her sick mother's insurance premiums. She needs our voice. There is a woman who's being denied the ability to make choices about her own body and her own life, and she needs our voice. There's a woman burying her boy, shot for being black. She needs our voice. There is a woman being called ‘Piggy’ by our president. She is one of many female reporters being shouted down. It's always the women being shouted down.
The Jim Acosta erasure and vicious smear that black people are shot in America for simply being black are horrible, but the fact McNearney thinks her job as a comedy writer includes abortion and illegal immigration activism should not get lost in the noise. The late night shows are swimming against the current of media consumption in 2025, but they are determined to make things worse by turning themselves into progressive scolds.
Here is a transcript for the December 3 event:
The Hollywood Reporter’s Women In Entertainment
12/3/2025
MOLLY MCNEARNEY: I've been asked to speak about freedom of speech, and I have to be honest, I naively assumed it was a guarantee in this country until September 16, 2025. It's something that I took for granted. It's something I thought I'd always have. Like my period. Did you guys know that those just stop? They just stop. I mean, not without warning, there's like eight to ten excruciating years where you are an unhinged psychopath who cleans every countertop. Gwyneth knows Gwyneth's nodding her head.
She warned us. She told us all about it on Goop, and I didn't read the article. I just bought the candle. Has Jimmy left yet? You have, you're supposed to leave now. Okay, anyway, your period stops, you guys, it stops and it turns out that some freedoms in this country can too. Who knew? we experienced it most recently in 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and we got another taste of it two months ago. I watched a show and coworkers and friends and a man I love be put on “indefinite suspension” after our very thin-skinned president asked for his removal and for his FCC chair to publicly threaten the company that we work for. It is a fragile time for freedom. When I sat down to write about freedom of speech, ironically, I did not know what to say.
…
MCNEARNEY: And then it occurred to me in my anxious and frazzled state, this is exactly how we lose our freedom. With perimenopause. No, no, that's not true. If anything, perimenopause rage is gonna save us and get all those freedoms back.
We lose our freedom when we are scared and when we are distracted. And I have been very consumed by both. Fear is contagious. But the good news is. So is bravery. I have watched Jimmy and my friends and my co-workers. I've watched them hold our leaders accountable without fear, night after night. I've watched other late night shows and journalists and lawyers and activists and politicians and civilians in the street stick their neck out there for all of us. I watched many of you rally around truth and justice and integrity. And when our freedom of speech was on the line, I observed millions of people across the aisle, some in this very room, using their voices to protect ours.
I cannot emphasize enough how important this is. We must not be afraid to speak up and speak out to protect this country and all the people in it, even when what we're wearing is dumb and J Lo looks better than any of us ever will. I look like Yogi Berra's lawyer. Yogi Bear’s lawyer. Doesn't matter, doesn't matter. Those who pretend to care about America are counting on you and me to be afraid and to be distracted. We have to actively protect the rights that we cherish. As soon as we normalize what's happening in this country, that is exactly what we become. Whether you like it or not, God or the universe, or Oprah chose you to live in this time, in this moment, together with other people chosen by God or the universe or Oprah or maybe even Steadman. I don't know. I've had anyone ever heard him talk? I've never heard him talk. I've never heard him talk. She's so lucky.
So lucky, he never talks. So let's just use our time together here to fight for what we know is right. There are women not lucky enough to be in this room, outside these walls, who desperately need us to use our hard won freedom of speech. There's a woman out there who is separated from her children by masked men right here on our streets and sent to a country she does not call home. She needs our voice. There is a woman who is not going to be able to afford her sick mother's insurance premiums. She needs our voice. There is a woman who's being denied the ability to make choices about her own body and her own life, and she needs our voice.
There's a woman burying her boy, shot for being black. She needs our voice. There is a woman being called “Piggy” by our president. She is one of many female reporters being shouted down. It's always the women being shouted down.
