Catt Sadler speaks out on E! exit: 'To stay would mean collaborating with an evil system'

Last December, Catt Sadler left her 12-year tenure as an E! co-host. Inadvertently, she sparked a revolution by exemplifying the issues that the Time's Up movement aims to dismantle.

At the time Sadler took to her blog to explain that the reason she left was because she learned her male co-star was being paid nearly twice as much as her for nearly identical work. Now, she's further detailing the events that lead to her departure for the first time since the event in a Coveteur article.

"I didn’t start out on a crusade to be a voice for gender equality in the workplace; I didn’t have grandiose plans to organize powerful people and roar about equal pay," she wrote. "I knew in my core that to stay would mean collaborating with an evil system. Swallowing my values was not an option. What happened to me was unfair."

Sadler explained that leaving was the absolute final possibility. After exhausting all other avenues of negotiation, she said:

I asked the decision makers face to face, “Why?” “Why is he, in your opinion, worth so much more than I am? Is he doubly good at his job?” Their response? “We’re obviously just looking through a different lens than you.” Yes, the ‘he’s a male and therefore gets preferential treatment’ lens.

During the Television Critics Association press tour in early January, NBCU Lifestyle Network president Frances Berwick addressed the page gap controversy surrounding the network, claiming that the two hosts, "had different roles, and therefore different salaries."

And while Berwick tried to blame the unequal pay by pointing to variations in the two hosts' areas of coverage and "expertise," many expressed doubt. Sadler further provides proof that these were only flimsy excuses, further detailing what her work entailed in the article.

When Sadler published her initial blog post, she didn't know if anyone would even care. "And wow, was I wrong."

Sadler was a staple at the network for over a decade Credit: Jason Kempin/Getty Images

Sadler described how she suddenly found herself in the surreal experience of, for the first time, being at the center of entertainment's biggest story of the moment, rather than reporting on it.

"Most surprising though, was the response from strangers all across the globe who somehow felt encouraged by my stand. Dozens and dozens of women sharing similar disappointment, frustrations, and outrage about their own work experiences."

Sadler said she was also moved "to tears more than once" on the night of the Golden Globes, when multiple actresses expressed their support for her on camera on the E! red carpet, and the countless of others who expressed support through the #imwithcattsad hashtag.

"The support I’ve received astounds me everyday," she wrote. "Instead of hearing Calvin Klein and Ellie Saab roll off the tongues of some of the most respected actresses in the game, they were speaking my name."

Sadler might've unwittingly become the symbol that shows exactly why Hollywood and the world at large must reckon with the vision of the Time's Up movement. But she now understands the significance of standing up, speaking your truth, and demanding more.

"The injustice that I was experiencing and naively thought was merely my own, became a collective awakening in many ways. Countless women around the world experience workplace discrimination and it must end," she said.

And, while she knows she's become the example, Sadler's learned what it feels like to be part of something much larger than yourself.

"This isn’t about one person, or a few —it’s about us," she concludes. "It’s about holding each other up as sisters, challenging the status quo, and refusing to accept less than what we deserve."

Read the full article here.