After nearly a dozen years at E! News, Catt Sadler has announced she’s leaving the company…
… and she’s sort of leaving the network’s reputation in tatters by doing so.
Via a lengthy statement that has gone viral and made her a hero of the ongoing #MeToo movement, the long-time anchor has explained her decision as follows:
“Up until this point, I mean it really has been a dream job. Literally a dream job,” Sadler said to open her statement, adding:
“I’m from Indiana, born and raised, and I had my sights set on E! and I’ve seen the world. I’ve had the best experiences. I’ve gotten incredibly close with all of my coworkers. It’s like a family here and it’s been beautiful for the majority of my run.
“I pinch myself every day the job that I get to do. I have so much fun. It has almost been surreal. But then, this year happened.”
Huh? Please elaborate, Catt.
Over the past 12 months or so, the single mother of two has expanded her responsibilities at E!.
She now (or used to) host the two-hour live daytime show Daily Pop and also anchored E! News on many evenings, thereby taking on “more work hours and what not,” she writes.
However, her paycheck has not reflected this new status and increased work load.
With her contract set to come to an end, Sadler was told executives wanted her to sign a new deal.
But Sadler says she was “informed and made aware that my male equivalent at the network who I started with the same year and have come up with doing essentially similar jobs, if not the same job, wasn’t just making a little bit more than me but was making double my salary and has been for several years.”
She’s referring here to Jason Kennedy.
No numbers have been thrown around, but he apparently makes TWICE what Sadler has been making and what she was going to be offered.
“That was really hard to swallow, but you know information is supposed to be power and when my team began negotiations knowing what we knew, that was the barometer in which I expected to be paid, based on the law and based on what I know to be fair,” she wrote.
Sadler says she believes in her “hearts of hearts” that it’s “reasonable” to be compensated on par with Kennedy.
Although Sadler was really hoping to stick around the network “not only did [E!] refuse to pay me as much as my male counterpart, but they didn’t come close – nowhere close, not even remotely close.”
Continues Sadler, intent on explaining herself, even though her side is really clear:
“It’s almost insulting because you know you work really hard. I’m a single mom of two kids. I’ve given my all to this network. I’ve sacrificed time away from my family and I have dedicated my entire career to this network.
“And when you learn something like that, it makes you feel very small and underappreciated and undervalued. It’s heartbreaking.”
Catt also wants everyone to know she isn’t blaming Kennedy in any way, shape or form.
“Jason Kennedy is one of my best friends in the whole wide world. He is like a brother to me. And in no way do I want this to reflect poorly on him.
“He’s devastated, I think, and I think he believes that this is a great loss for the network. He does not want to see me go. Jason is a class act …
“It’s important that people don’t vilify him because he isn’t the problem – the system’s the problem, the structure’s the problem. And I really do mean that. Because that’s been a hard part of this whole thing because I love him dearly.
“And to be honest, he has been such a champion for me in every sense. But it’s not his decision.”
In the wake of her announcement and reveal, Sadler has received support across social media.
Here’s what Jennifer Lawrence Tweeted, for example:
Others, meanwhile, are now threatening to boycott E! News.
Sadler isn’t advocating that or anything, she just says she feels “empowered” these days to stand up for herself as a woman.
What might she do next?
“I might go off the grid at least for a week or so. I’m going to try and make that happen,” she says, concluding:
“And then I’m going to get back to work, you best believe.”
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Lol andddd I’m out.”