Longtime E! news anchor Catt Sadler‘s exit has sparked conversations about fair pay.
Sadler announced her departure this week, saying she decided to leave the network after learning her co-host, Jason Kennedy, was making double the money and the network refused to match the number in contract negotiations.
“Up until this point, I mean it really has been a dream job. Literally a dream job. 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 co-workers. 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,” Sadler told People. “But then, this year happened.”
Sadler is a single mom of two who had most recently stepped into a co-host role of E! News along with Daily Pop, a two-hour live show. She started her career at WXIN, the Fox affiliate in Indianapolis, during college. She also worked at KNTV in San Jose, Calif., as an entertainment reporter and later anchored WXIN’s morning show.
She says taking a stand on equal pay for women was the right thing to do, but leaving the network took “a lot of soul searching.”
“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. And what I believe in my heart of hearts is reasonable,” she explained.
Sadler’s contract was up this year.