Former ESPN reporter Jemele Hill has announced that she's joining The Atlantic (NOT The Athletic) after a dozen years at ESPN. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Hill says she's looking forward to working at a place "where the discomfort is okay."
"So much has happened in the last year that I felt like this is as an appropriate time as ever to spread my wings in different ways that I hadn’t really thought of before, or that I knew were possible," she says. "I guess I was going through major FOMO—fear of missing out. There’s a wider playground that I can dabble in, and places where the discomfort is okay. I wasn’t going to be able to be happy with myself if I didn’t adhere to this calling that’s beckoning me right now."
Hill, who had been working for ESPN’s “The Undefeated,” was at the center of controversy last year when she called out President Trump in a series of tweets for being a white supremacist who surrounds himself with other white supremacists, and the most offensive president of her lifetime.
She was ultimately suspended for violating ESPN's social media policy. Hill then stopped co-hosting SC:6 with Michael Smith, and the show has since been scrapped altogether. Last month, she released a statement regarding her departure from ESPN.
“When I started at ESPN in 2006, I had no idea that such a wonderful journey would take place over the next 12 years,” she said in a statement Friday. “This was the place where I became the best version of myself, both personally and professionally.”
"However, the time has come for me to begin a new chapter in my life."