Former ESPN Host Sage Steele Opens Up About ESPN Departure With Megyn Kelly: ‘There Were Different Rules For Me’

Former ESPN host Sage Steele spoke out for the first time since her departure from the network, claiming unfair treatment by upper management.

Steele joined the network in 2007 and faced backlash for comments she made in a podcast interview in 2021 where she talked candidly about vaccine mandates, women is sports reporting, and former President Barack Obama’s heritage.

Soon after, ESPN removed her from the air and Steele was forced to apologize. She later filed a lawsuit against the company in 2022. On Tuesday, she settled her lawsuit with the company and announced she would be leaving the network to “exercise my first amendment rights more freely.”

Steele spoke with Megyn Kelly about her exit and her determination to regain her freedom of speech on the Thursday edition of Sirius XM’s The Megyn Kelly Show.

“I have to remind the audience, this is ESPN. They’re one of the wokest, most vocal news organizations when it comes to political viewpoints of any of them. It’s fine to speak out on dicey political or cultural issues at ESPN if you’re not named Sage Steele, somebody who is obviously more fair and balanced in her approach to these issues,” Kelly said.

Kelly played a compilation of ESPN hosts talking about political issues ranging from Donald Trump, the murder of George Floyd, and Ron DeSantis’ fight with their parent company, Disney.

Steele specified that her story was much different because she made her comments on a podcast independent of the network on her day off while the clips previously aired were over the ESPN airwaves.

“To me, it was very different compared to what you just played. Listen, all I ever wanted was consistency. And if we are allowing my peers to go on social media, much less on our own airwaves, saying things that have nothing to do with sports, that are political, that are not true — quite often because the parental rights bill in Florida is not what many people claim that it is. Most people apparently didn’t take the time to read it,” Steele said regarding some of her former coworkers speaking out against the Florida bill, referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by many of its critics.

“Then I should be allowed on my personal time to give my opinion on my experiences personally without telling others what to do or how to feel about being biracial or being forced to take a vaccine. And I think that’s just what breaks my heart, is that there were different rules for me than everyone else,” Steele added.

Steele revealed that the apology she posted in 2021 was not her idea.

“I did not want to apologize. I fought. And I fought. And I begged and I screamed. And I was told that if I want to keep my job, I have to apologize and I need my job. And I love my job. And I loved it,” Steele said. “So I apologized. And I think that I thought that that was going to be the end of it, because that’s what I was told. But when it continued. And there were events taking away events I’d worked years to get.”

Watch above via SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Show.

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