Rachel Nichols is one of the most popular names in sports media right now, and that's particularly impressive considering she's made it in an industry dominated by men.
The 50-year-old sports host, who is currently doing a bevy of gigs including regularly guesting on FS1's "Undisputed," has been employed by some of sports' and media's biggest companies, from The Washington Post to ESPN and Fox. But climbing the sports media ranks has always had more hurdles for women, even though Nichols claims that there were others like legendary sports columnist Christine Brennan who paved the way for her.
On an episode of Dan Le Batard's "South Beach Sessions" that aired on Dec. 22, Nichols spoke candidly about the struggles she faced to get to where she is today. In the hour-long interview, Nichols went through her whole career, though there was one particularly striking instance where she mentioned an encounter with an executive when Nichols was pregnant with twins.
She mentioned that she was always wary about having kids because she knew it would be viewed as a hindrance to her career.
Related: Dan Le Batard believes Stephen A. Smith is planning a huge move outside of ESPN
"When I was pregnant, I waited so long to tell them. I waited so long because I knew that this was not going to be good for me professionally," Nichols said. "I was married for ten years before I decided to have kids, and a big part of that consideration was, 'Do I want a little human in my life?' but also 'How is this going to affect the thing that I've scrapped for, that I've worked for so hard?'"
Nichols eventually had to tell her bosses, but she explained that she and her husband were in a stable place where she could easily continue with her career despite the role.
"I'm going to have full-time live-in help so I can still get on a plane anytime you want, that's part of why I waited ... and you won't notice the difference," Nichols told her bosses.
But she didn't get the response she was expecting.
"I had the executive look at me and say, 'This is great, congratulations, I'm so happy for you, it's been so nice working with you,'" Nichols said.
The executive continued by saying that he thought she was "not really going to be able to do the job" that she was currently doing if she were to become a mother. Nichols painted the scene happening in the office of the executive who had pictures of him with his family and kids on his desk, which she pointed out after he made his initial comments.
"He looked at me and he said, 'Rachel, children need their mothers,'" Nichols said.
Related: Matt Barnes speaks candidly about Rachel Nichols and Maria Taylor's ESPN controversy
Nichols didn't mention which company she was working for at the time of the instances, but she was on her first stint with ESPN when she was pregnant. It clearly didn't deter her career, even though she left in 2013 to work with CNN and Turner, and she returned to ESPN in 2016.
In 2022, Nichols had a very public and tumultuous exit from ESPN that involved a leaked audio recording of her from her hotel room in the NBA bubble in Florida. Le Batard prefaced his conversation with Nichols by saying that the two would not touch on the topic during this session, but would hopefully talk about it in-detail down the line.
Nichols' conversation with Le Batard did include several other instances of the difficulties she's faced in the industry, including bosses telling her she didn't belong, accusations that she only made it big by having sexual relationships with athletes, and actually receiving sexually explicit messages from supervisors.
Get exclusive access to portfolio managers’ stock picks and proven investing strategies with Real Money Pro. Get started now.
