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“I wish it hadn’t happened. I hope it will stop — his focus on me,” Megyn Kelly said of Donald Trump in an interview with Vanity Fair published Tuesday. | AP Photo Megyn Kelly on Trump's attacks: 'I hope it will stop'

Being in Donald Trump’s crosshairs is threatening, Fox News host Megyn Kelly said.

Kelly, a familiar and consistent target of the Republican front-runner and his supporters, said her experience clashing with Trump has been far from enjoyable.

“I wish it hadn’t happened. I hope it will stop — his focus on me,” Kelly told Variety in an interview published Tuesday.

Kelly famously challenged the New York billionaire on his rhetoric against women during an August debate. “You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs’ and ‘disgusting ‘animals,’” she told Trump. Moments later, she also invoked tweets Trump had cast to his millions of followers that disparage women, an aggressive line of questioning that has ultimately subjected her to months of attacks by Trump and his supporters.

“I’ve seen what’s happened with Michelle Fields, and in my own world, there’s another side to this behavior,” Kelly said, referring to the former Breitbart News reporter who alleges she was forcibly grabbed by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Trump has since repeatedly disparaged Fields as an opportunistic liar. “It poses real risks to the person under attack.”

Kelly said last week that she would “absolutely” welcome Trump on her show. In the interview with Variety, she added that it’s difficult to not only cover the often-controversial candidate but also to get him to answer direct questions. But it’s been a “long time” since she’s conducted an interview with him, she said.

“To be honest, every time I prepare an invitation to sit down with him, he attacks me on Twitter or elsewhere. I had always been hoping I could reach out to him at a time when he wasn’t angry,” Kelly said. “I don’t think it would be a good interview if he was angry at me—but then he never stops with the attacks.”

Despite the ubiquitous attacks from the real-estate mogul and his supporters, Kelly said the “smart money” would be on Trump versus Hillary Clinton in the general election.

“It’s going to take a lot to stop him,” she said. “I don’t see a clear path for [John] Kasich or [Ted] Cruz. Something extraordinary would have to happen, but this whole year has been extraordinary.”

Kelly also expressed her excitement for reporting on a contested convention this summer, should no candidate amass a majority of delegates in his or her respective primary, though she admitted the process is “very confusing.”

“We’re going to have to spend weeks boning up on the weird rules and committees. I get the basics: If one candidate doesn’t get it on the first vote, it’s a free-for-all on the second vote, and you better have wined and dined a lot of delegates to get them on your side,” she said. “I think the notion of them parachuting in some underdog candidate to save the day is a lot of nonsense—unless there are catastrophic wounds for the last man standing.”

Kelly predicted that one of the biggest post-election stories will be the media’s impact on the campaign. “[W]hat role they played, how they treated the candidates and how they allowed themselves to be treated,” she said.

As for the state of politics, Kelly said she isn’t surprised by it, but she is saddened and tries to shield her children from it. “I don’t want them to see it. I’m glad they are young. I’m glad they don’t fully appreciate what’s going on,” she said. “I wish we were doing better as a culture. I don’t know how I can help that. I don’t mean as a journalist; I mean as a human being.”