Journalist, former ESPN host Jemele Hill has book deal
By HILLEL ITALIE
NEW YORK (AP) — Jemele Hill, the ESPN host who departed the sports network a year after tweeting that President Donald Trump was a white supremacist, has a book deal.
Hill’s memoir will be published in 2021, Henry Holt and Company announced Tuesday. The book, Hill’s first, is currently untitled.
“I’m excited about the opportunity to stretch myself and grow,” Hill said in a statement issued through her publisher. “I hope that by sharing some very personal experiences in this memoir — things I’ve never shared publicly before — people will have a better understanding of who I am. I also hope by sharing my story, people realize their circumstances don’t have to dictate their capabilities or contributions.”
Hill joined ESPN in 2006 from the Orlando Sentinel and eventually moved in front of the cameras, notably on SportsCenter. She made headlines beyond the sports world in September 2017 when she tweeted on her personal account that Trump was a “white supremacist” and “the most ignorant, offensive president” of her lifetime. Then-White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called for Hill to be fired, and Trump himself said Hill was bad for ratings. In October 2017, ESPN announced it was suspending her for two weeks after she tweeted in favor of boycotting advertisers with the Dallas Cowboys, whose owner, Jerry Jones, had said that any player who took a knee during the national anthem would not play on his team.
In 2018, Hill and ESPN amicably parted ways. She now is a staff writer for The Atlantic and hosts the Spotify Original podcast “Jemele Hill is Unbothered.” In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this year, she stood by her Trump comments.
“I didn’t like the fact that it caused damage to people I care about and to relationships that I built, but in terms of what I said, I don’t regret it,” she said. “In my mind, I’ve only been proven right so it’s hard for me to regret it knowing that I’m on the right side of history.”
