Miss America Organization on Brink of Collapse After Email Scandal

The CEO of the Miss America organization, along with the COO and a board chair, have resigned after The Huffington Post published emails from them where they fat-shamed, slut-shamed, and even joked about the death of a former pageant winner.

One day after being suspended, CEO Sam Haskell resigned on Saturday from his position, which reportedly paid nearly $500,000 a year. COO Josh Randle and board chair Lynn Weidner will be gone in the next few weeks, while Dick Clark Productions, which produces the annual beauty pageant in Atlantic City, N.J., severed ties with the nonprofit organization, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Leaked emails show Haskell allowed or participated in discussions of former pageant winners where their sex lives and weight were derided; 2013 Miss America winner Mallory Hagan (pictured above, at the 2013 GLAAD Awards) received the lion's share of criticism. But Miss America 1998 Kate Shindle was also a target of ire, mostly for criticizing Haskell's exorbitant paycheck. When former winner Mary Ann Mobley died in late 2014, an organization employee wrote an email to Haskell with the subject line, "It should have been Kate Shindle."

Haskell replied, "Thanks so much Coach...even in my sadness you can make me laugh...how was the Kennedy Center Honors? Love you and appreciate you! Sam."

Gretchen Carlson -- a pageant winner in 1989, a former board member of the Miss America Organization, and a former Fox journalist who sued Roger Ailes for sexual harassment and exposed a culture of terror at Fox News -- was also regularly criticized and described as a "snake" and "INFUCKINGSANE."

A writer with the 2014 pageant also suggested calling former Miss Americas "cunts"; Haskell responded to the email by writing, "Perfect... bahahaha."

In addition to Dick Clark Productions severing ties with the pageants, the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals is conducting an investigation to determine whether they will still accept funding from the nonprofit. Aside from contributing to charities like the Miracle Network, Miss America provides scholarships to the young women in its pageants.