Miss America leaders quit in email scandal
Top pageant officials resign after release of offensive messages about past winners.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The top leadership of the Miss America Organization has resigned, sweeping out officials implicated for abusive emails about past pageant winners based on their appearance, intellect and sex lives.
Chief Executive Sam Haskell resigned from the Atlantic City organization Saturday, a day after he was suspended by the board. President Josh Randle and Chair Lynn Weidner also resigned Saturday.
The organization announced the resignations a day after dozens of former Miss Americas signed a petition calling on the group’s leadership to step down.
The emails were leaked to the Huffington Post, which first reported on them Thursday. Haskell said he made “a mistake of words.”
“Those who know my heart know that this is not indicative of my character, nor is it indicative of my business acumen,” Haskell wrote in a statement issued Friday.
Haskell’s resignation is effective immediately, while Randle and Weidner will remain for a few weeks to help with a leadership transition. Dan Meyers, former vice chairman of the board, was named interim chairman.
In separate statements, the Miss America board confirmed the resignations of Randle, who became president in May and at 29 was the youngest to hold that position, as well as Haskell and Weidner.
The emails included one that used a vulgar term for female genitalia to refer to past winners, one that wished a particular former Miss America had died and others speculating about how many sex partners a former Miss America has had.
Several of the emails targeted 2013 winner Mallory Hagan, claiming she had gained weight and speculating about how many men she’d had sex with.
The emails have already cost the pageant its TV production partner and raised questions about the future of the nationally televised broadcast from Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall the week after Labor Day each year. Dick Clark Productions told the Associated Press on Thursday that it had cut ties with the Miss America Organization over the emails, calling them “appalling.”
Also Saturday, one of the main recipients of fundraising from the organization said it was reviewing its association with Miss America. The Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals said it would “take appropriate actions.”
“We are appalled by the behavior reported in the media and add our voice to others demanding investigation, action and change,” the nonprofit said in a statement.