Former ESPN president John Skipper says he resigned suddenly from his position last December because he was threatened with extortion over his cocaine use.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Skipper opens up for the first time about his abrupt departure from the WorldWide Leader. Skipper stepped down as ESPN president Dec. 18, citing substance abuse in a statement.
The timing was curious. Five days earlier, Skipper had issued a companywide address about the future of ESPN. The previous month, he inked a three-year extension with the network. According to Skipper, he used cocaine recreationally throughout his tenure at ESPN. He never considered resigning until somebody from whom he bought it from threatened to blackmail him.
At that point, after a conversation with Disney CEO Bob Iger, Skipper says he made the decision.
"They threatened me, and I understood immediately that threat put me and my family at risk, and this exposure would put my professional life at risk as well," Skipper told THR's James Andrew Miller. "I foreclosed that possibility by disclosing the details to my family, and then when I discussed it with Bob, he and I agreed that I had placed the company in an untenable position and as a result, I should resign."
Skipper's conversation with Iger took place on Friday, Dec. 15. He released his resignation statement the following Monday, saying he thought it was the only appropriate action.
"I was overwhelmed by the circumstance. I simply just disclosed the facts, and it became clear in my conversation with Bob what I needed to do. Everything happened very quickly," he explained.
Outside of some missed flights and cancelled morning appointments, Skipper is adamant his drug use never affected his work at ESPN. His tenure with the company started in 1997, when he was named vice president and general manager of ESPN the Magazine. He was named president of ESPN in 2012, serving in that role for five years.
There has been some speculation Skipper was forced to resign over workplace harassment issues. He denied those rumors in the interview.
"Those rumors and speculations are categorically and definitively untrue," he said. "There were no such incidents at work during my entire tenure, including no allegations. I did not traffic in that kind of activity. The company is not engaged in any actions on my behalf and never has been. There were no affairs or inappropriate relationships at work nor indiscretions other than what I have disclosed. My behavior relative to women at ESPN was always respectful. I did not touch anybody inappropriately. I did not tell off-color jokes. I treated everybody with respect. The principle reason I chose to write the statement I wrote — to disclose substance abuse — was to make it clear that this didn't have anything to do with harassment, settled lawsuits or any internal indiscretions. I never had any relationships, even consensual adult relationships, with anybody at work. And as far as I know, there was never a single claim of one."
ESPN named Jimmy Pitaro its new president last week.
