Catt Sadler May Sue E! Over ‘Insulting’ Pay Disparity

Not backing down. Catt Sadler opened up to former E! colleague Maria Menounos about quitting her job at E! Entertainment after her pay disparity with former cohost Jason Kennedy — and she may take legal action. 

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As previously reported, Sadler announced in December that she was leaving the network after 12 years because she was being paid half of what Kennedy was. “I almost felt a little naive that I was being taken advantage of,” Sadler said on Sirius XM’s Conversations with Maria Menounos on Thursday, February 8. “I had been there for more than a decade … I was an ideal employee, and by the way I think pretty damn good at my job, to then find out that I was, and again this isn’t just a little less for me, it was half, it just was insulting, I guess.” 

Jason Kennedy and Catt Sadler arrive at NBCUniversal’s Press Junket at Beauty & Essex on November 13, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Amanda Edwards/WireImage

Later on in the conversation, Sadler and Menounos discussed the president of the NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, Frances Berwick, arguing that Sadler and Kennedy had different roles at the network. 

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“I know that from a network standpoint, we were positioned a lot — even when you were there as a trifecta — I was a fixture on that show … Then you leave and two people are side by side as kind of like the male and female of this network. You can’t say that we have ‘different roles’ and he has some kind of expertise that I do not,” Sadler explained. “I didn’t have to defend myself because the people who watch that network and have for 10 years are going ‘Uh, next excuse’ because that didn’t work. To me it was actually like ‘Are you watching your own network?’”

The former Daily Pop host continued, “By the way, there is something called the equality — the pay act … it is unlawful to discriminate, it is sexual discrimination, so you better believe that people are going to say on record what protects them in a certain, particular instance.”

“Wait, so are you suing E! for this? Because you can,” Menounos asked. 

“Not today,” Sadler responded. 

“But you might? You have a year, right? Or something like that? Got it. Yeah, I could see that,” Menounos said.

Sadler stayed quiet and did not offer up about other any details about taking legal action, but she did continue to stand by Kennedy when Menounos asked about his reaction to the situation. 

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“Jason had to do what Jason had to,” Sadler said. “I always, always have stood by his side and he’s always stood by mine. I’ve said it from day one, I don’t know how many times I’ve said it in the press, how many different ways I’ve said ‘This has nothing to do with him, this has everything to do with me and the gross disparity. Jason was always a champion of mine.”

When asked if Kennedy went to E! on her behalf, and Sadler responded, “I believe so, yes. That’s why, proactively, I made such a point of saying, ‘This isn’t about him.’  By the way he has his own family and by the way he deserves every dime he’s making — without question! This isn’t that he didn’t deserve that much, it’s that I deserved as much.”  

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