ESPN’s Jemele Hill has denied allegations in a lawsuit that claims Chris Berman, for years the face of the broadcaster, left a racially abusive voicemail for her in 2016.
The claim is part of a suit filed on Sunday by former ESPN employee Adrienne Lawrence, who alleges the broadcaster is “rife with misogyny” and enabled an atmosphere that allowed sexual harassment.
According to Lawrence’s suit: “In early 2016, ESPN’s The Undefeated personality Jemele Hill received a threatening and racially disparaging voicemail from Berman on her ESPN phone line. After Hill notified executive Marcia Keegan about the matter and forwarded the voicemail to her, nothing was done. Despite his continued and repeated misconduct toward women, Berman remains a celebrated and welcome ESPN employee.”
However, on Monday night Hill rebutted the allegations. While admitting she had clashed with Berman she sai:d “Chris never left any racially disparaging remarks on my voicemail and our conflict was handled swiftly and with the utmost professionalism.”
Re: Chris Berman pic.twitter.com/p7NqjHiV7r
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) March 6, 2018
ESPN released its own statement on Monday. “We conducted a thorough investigation of the claims Adrienne Lawrence surfaced to ESPN and they are entirely without merit ... The company will vigorously defend its position and we are confident we will prevail in court.”
Berman, known for his outlandish personality, was the central figure in ESPN’s NFL coverage until he stepped down from regular presenting duties last year. The 62-year-old continues to make occasional appearances on the network.
Hill hosted ESPN’s primetime SC6 show for a year before joining the company’s Undefeated section, which covers culture, race and sports. She was suspended by the company in October 2017 after her public criticism of NFL owners’ policy on players’ anthem protests. She had previously tweeted that Donald Trump is a “bigot” and “a white supremacist”.
