After pretty much everyone at ESPN called her a liar, Adrienne Lawrence spoke with Think Progress to defend herself.
One of the things that seem to have struck a nerve with people is that Lawrence included private conversations in her lawsuit without asking the women at ESPN if they were ok with it.
Here is what she had to say.
“This isn’t about me. It’s for the women there who I left behind that would come to me and ask me for my help,” Lawrence told ThinkProgress in a phone interview on Monday night. “There are women that are scared, there are women trying to get into this business, and they’re siloed in silence.”
“I’ll be damned if anyone says this is for my personal gain,” Lawrence said. “Play the voicemail then, the one that you kept. Play it, I know you have it. I’ve never heard it. I went off of her description of it.”
“It wasn’t easy sharing what others had confided in me, but someone has to speak up if anything is to change,” Lawrence said. “These are things people came to me and told me about, and they weren’t right. If you don’t bring things to light they won’t get better.”
“I can’t leave those girls behind. I couldn’t just take a paycheck and be silenced, and it’s disappointing that others can,” Lawrence said. “It’s really disappointing to see all of these women who have the power to say something, and yet they will do anything to protect the shield. The shield abused them when they were on the way up, and it will abuse them on their way down.”
This isn’t a black and white issue, there is some real gray area.
It is really about who you believe, a publication like Think Progress obviously is on Lawrence’s side. Others are taking a more netural stance, while ESPN and some talent have called her an outright liar.
Flip the page to read the whole lawsuit along with specific accusations against Bomani Jones, and others.
