Former Miss America winners respond to CEO's 'disgusting' emails

The Miss America beauty pageant is in turmoil after the Huffington Post revealed disturbing leaked emails from CEO Sam Haskell.

On Thursday, a report detailed the sexist way in which multiple Miss America Organisation (MAO) senior employees spoke about former winners.

2013 winner Mallory Hagan was viciously targeted by Haskell with several emails speculating about her weight (“she is huge… and gross”) and sex life.

Haskell, who joined MAO in 2005 and has been credited with turning around its fortunes, has also been accused of targeting 1989 winner Gretchen Carlson for attempting to modernise the pageant organisation.

1998 winner Kate Shindle was also mentioned in the emails after she questioned MAO’s decision to pay Haskell $500,000 (£373,570) despite the company being over $400,000 (£298,857) in debt.

Now, several former winners of Miss America have spoken out with the hashtag #FireSamHaskell circulating on Twitter.

28-year-old Mallory Hagan has been very active on Twitter since the report, even urging current contestants to “stay in” the competition.

After the news that MAO’s board said they still have “full confidence” in Haskell, the former Miss America wrote: “Full confidence in a man who thinks it’s ‘perfect!’ to call the women who are Miss Americas c**ts. Never mind what he’s repeatedly said about me. Like what?”

Three months after winning the pageant in 2013, Hagan was publicly fat-shamed for appearing to gain a little weight. Haskell didn’t comment on it at the time but in August 2014, several emails between him and pageant script writer, Lewis Friedman, mentioned intimate details of Hagan’s personal life.

Haskell forwarded an email about Hagan from a friend to Friedman, saying: “Not a single day passes that I am not told some horrible story about Mallory.”

Referencing her weight, Friedman replied: “Mallory’s preparing for her new career… as a blimp in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.” He ended the email with: “P.S. Are we four the only ones not to have f**ked Mallory?”

Haskell then replied, writing: “It appears we are the only ones!” He added that Hagan had slept with someone he knew and he had told the man’s mother “he needs to have a blood test because we lost count of the number of men she slept with at 25.”

In January 2015, board chairwoman Lynn Weidner sent a photo of Hagan to Haskell. Haskell replied with: “OMG she is huge… and gross… why does he want that?????”

He appears to be referencing former employee Brent Adams who was dating Hagan at the time. Haskell was open about his desire for Adams to date his daughter, Mary Lane Haskell.

1998 Miss America Kate Shindle also responded to the controversy with a statement, writing: “I almost don’t have the words to respond. Today, I read that a member of the [Miss America] production team wished I were dead, and that Executive Chairman and CEO Sam Haskell laughed about it.”

“I still believe that Miss America has relevance and purpose in 2017 and beyond. But in order to achieve that purpose, the entire Board of Directors must immediately resign, including and especially Sam Haskell.”

The 1989 champion Gretchen Carlson echoed Shindle’s statement: “As a proud former Miss America and former member of Board, I’m deeply saddened by disgusting statements about women attributed to leadership of MAO. No woman should be demeaned with such vulgar slurs.”

“Every MAO executive & board member who engaged in such crude behaviour and signed off on it like it was no big deal should resign immediately.”

Former contestant Allyn Rose wrote: “I’m appalled by these allegations. The intelligent, talented, dynamic women of this program deserve more than this kind of ‘leadership.'”

While 2010 winner Caressa Cameron-Jackson tweeted: “As a former who was blackballed after calling SH out about the way he spoke about my mum in an email, none of this surprises me.”

Dick Clark Productions, the company who are responsible for televising the Miss America pageant, have terminated their agreement with MAO. In a statement, they said: “Several months ago, Dick Clark Productions was made aware of a portion of the emails that were referenced in the December 21 Huffington Post article.”

“We were appalled by their unacceptable content and insisted, in the strongest possible terms, that the Miss America Organisation (MAO) board of directors conduct a comprehensive investigation and take appropriate action to address the situation. Shortly thereafter, we resigned our board positions and notified MAO that we were terminating our relationship with them.”

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