JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Jayne Kennedy will tell you she never had a goal to be famous. She didn't set out to become friends with athletes like Muhammad Ali or inspire other broadcasters like Oprah Winfrey. She describes in a new memoir, "Plain Jayne," that she just wanted to be the same Ohio kid and sports lover her parents raised. But her mom's suggestion that she enter a pageant put her on an unexpected path.
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UNIDENTIFIED TV HOST: Well, Miss Ohio, I want to wish you luck.
JAYNE KENNEDY: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED TV HOST: You're among the 15 semifinalists already.
KENNEDY: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED TV HOST: Yes.
SUMMERS: Kennedy made it to the Miss USA semifinals in 1970 after becoming the first Black woman to win Miss Ohio. A slew of on-screen roles and Hollywood connections came after. By 1978, when CBS Sports was looking to replace its sole female anchor on "The NFL Today," she went for it, but she still had barriers to break once she got an audition.
KENNEDY: I knew immediately they were not looking for someone like me because there were 16 women. Fifteen were blonde. And so, you know, I kicked back and I said, I'm just going to have a good time.
SUMMERS: Kennedy focused on making friends during a mock interview with an athlete. Original "NFL Today" host Brent Musburger took notice.
KENNEDY: We're laughing and talking and have a great time, and Brent Musburger stood up and said, it's Jayne or nobody. But they still didn't want to hire me because they were afraid the Southern affiliates would have an issue with that.
SUMMERS: So she only got a six-week trial on the job to start. I asked Jayne Kennedy how she navigated that as well as other major life events.
KENNEDY: My second week, I overheard them looking for who was going to get the interview for Muhammad Ali post-fight.
SUMMERS: And that's where you come in - right? - because you had a relationship with him.
KENNEDY: And that's where I came in (laughter). I put my hand in the air. I said, I can get you the interview. And they said, who are you? (Laughter) So I called Ali, told him what I was doing. He left a key for me at the front desk. We got the interview, and the - it opens with Muhammad Ali saying, I'd only do this for my friend Jayne. Then I go home. Next morning, I wake up. Phone call. Jayne, your contract has been extended (laughter).
SUMMERS: Jayne, I have to ask you, what was the culture like on the show once that contract was extended, once you're in the mix?
KENNEDY: On the show was great. It was off the show where it had the problems. A lot of reporters, male reporters, didn't want to have a woman in that desk at all. They certainly didn't want a Black woman in that desk at all. But I didn't pay attention to that. I just said I'm going to do the best that I possibly can. I knew a lot of the NFL players. And my old friend had told me, make a friend with whoever you interview. It doesn't matter what they do, you make a friend with them.
And we're going out on the road doing all these interviews, and I'm having people, they - you know, they're saying no, we don't want to do an interview. And then they say, Jayne Kennedy is doing the interview. And they say, oh, yes. Oh, yes, we'll be there. We'll be there. But it was great to see the support that I got from the players around the league.
SUMMERS: Jayne Kennedy, I know ultimately you were let go from that job in 1980. And I don't want to spoil for readers all of the sort of CBS palace intrigue that you mention on what happened in that whole situation. But something I do want to ask you about is the pressure that you said you felt from others who felt that you should have perhaps fought harder to keep the job because of what you meant for Black representation in the business. Did that pressure feel fair at all?
KENNEDY: You know, quite honestly, I was making sure that I was able to compete with anyone on the desk. And so it really hurt me, when I was fired, that there was a newspaper, the Chicago Defender, and they said, Jayne should have kept her job. She let us down. She should have kept her job, even if she had to - excuse my language - even if she had to kiss butt. You know, the other word.
SUMMERS: Right.
KENNEDY: And that really hurt me because I had done everything right. I was supporting not only my people, but, you know, I wanted to make America know that a woman could do this job.
SUMMERS: Yeah.
KENNEDY: And that was important to me.
SUMMERS: Jayne, you also mention how the end of your "NFL Today" career was when you started to really take stock of your marriage to fellow actor Leon Kennedy. I know that - a difficult period in your relationship. It coincides with when, after you and Leon had been divorced for about eight years, what you describe in the book as a privately recorded VHS tape of the two of you engaging in consensual married intimacy - or a sex tape - was stolen from his home and released. This is the first time that you've addressed that after 35 years. Why talk about it now?
KENNEDY: Thank you for addressing it, firstly, as not a sex tape because it wasn't. It was an intimate moment between two married, consenting people. And I was the one that decided not to have a press conference and talk about what had happened because it was - I just couldn't live with it. It hurt too much. And it was a family member who stole the tape and released it. And it ruined both of us. Ruined my career drastically. I went through a deep depression. I didn't want to see anyone, talk to anyone, except for family.
SUMMERS: Having read the way that you've written about it and now listening to you speak about it, it sounds like it had a profound and just such a painful effect on you and really changed some of the trajectory of your life.
KENNEDY: It did because, you know, like, people didn't - people wanted to believe the negative. And I ended up believing it myself, I guess. (Crying) Oh, gosh. OK, anyway...
SUMMERS: It's OK. If you want to take a second, we can.
KENNEDY: I eventually found a minister. I just saw him at his church on the street. And there was a glowing light out of the room, and they were having choir practice. A small little church. And I waited until everyone left, and I told the pastor, I said, I need to speak with you. And I explained to him what happened. And I said, I need to learn how to forgive. And he says, who are you forgiving? And I said, I don't know. And six months later, I realized that I needed to forgive myself. And I said goodbye to him and said, I'll see you next week for our regular session. And I came back the next week and the church was gone, and never saw him again.
So my life has moments like that. I almost died in Hawaii, and this person saved me. And I walked back to shore and turned around to look out at the ocean. Turned around, he was gone. And my mom told me that I had a purpose, and I hadn't met my purpose yet. And he was my angel. So I was waiting again for "Plain Jayne" to show me my purpose. That was my search through entire process of writing "Plain Jayne." I was looking for my purpose. And I found it.
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SUMMERS: We've been speaking with Jayne Kennedy about her memoir "Plain Jayne." Jayne, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.
KENNEDY: Thank you so much. I enjoyed myself.
(SOUNDBITE OF CITY OF THE SUN'S "PERFECT INSTANCE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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