The interview on Tuesday follows ex-Miss America CEO Sam Haskell’s
resignation after his sexist and degrading emails about former
contestants were made public. Organization president Josh Randle and
chairman Lynn Weidner have also resigned.
“Hindsight is always 20-20,” Hagan, who was crowned the winner of the
2013 pageant winner, told GMA
when asked if she’d witnessed demeaning
behavior first-hand. She added that it’s essential now to look ahead —
not in the rear-view.
Asked if the scandal marks the pageant’s demise or the reinvention,
Hagan said: “I hope it signals the reinvention ... I hope that we’re
starting a larger conversation,” she added.
The focus of that conversation is “about how we’re going to move
forward in the future. This is an opportunity to see how women can come
together, support each other, rise up, take over the things that they
want to see happen,” she said.
Hagan singled out Brent Adams, the former pageant employee who spoke
out about the emails, “the unsung hero. He stood up for me; he stood up
for all these women.”
As she expressed gratitude for his support and that of fans, she said
that mea culpas from pageant honchos involved in the derogatory emails
isn’t “the point.”
“I did see that Josh Randle said he apologizes for his behavior and,
for that, I guess I’m grateful. But in the other statements that I saw,
I’m not seeing really an apology there. But that’s not really the point
here. At this point, those people are no longer affiliated with Miss
America.”
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