'Pain was excruciating': 'MNF' alum Lisa Guerrero opens up on miscarriage during live NFL coverage in 2003
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Inside Edition journalist Lisa Guerrero has revealed that she suffered a miscarriage in the middle of an NFL game while reporting live for ABC’s ‘Monday Night Football’ during the 2003-2004 season. The 58-year-old veteran opened up about the heart-wrenching moments in her new memoir ‘Warrior: My Path to Being Brave’, which captures her talking about the sexism and mistreatment she endured as a female reporter in the sports world. The explosive tell-all memoir is scheduled to release on Tuesday, January 24.
Guerrero, who took over the 'MNF' role from Melissa Stark in the 2003 NFL season, explained to People that the heart-shattering miscarriage was the result of brutal bullying at the hands of her boss, executive producer Freddie Gaudelli and ABC's weekly audience of 40 million people who would constantly criticize her looks, posture, and on-air skills. She also alleged that the comments made by Gaudelli pushed her to the point where she even contemplated suicide.
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"People who knew what was going on with [my boss] Freddie and who read how I was being treated in the media already looked at me with such pity," said Guerrero, who kept the secret for 20 years, recalled. "I was a shell of myself. And I felt such shame and embarrassment that the last thing I was going to say is, 'Oh, and by the way, I just had a miscarriage," she added.
The eight-time National Headliner Award-winning journalist added that she was isolated from her peers despite Monday Night Football's increase in ratings with her on the sidelines. "Freddie's criticisms obliterated all other [facets] of my life — a great job, lots of money, and a gorgeous fiance [MLB pitcher Scott Erickson]," she wrote in the book. She added, "But I was thinking, Who decides to get married when they're also considering killing themselves? That was how bad I felt."
Amid this brutal criticism, Guerrero got pregnant with her husband, former MLB pitcher Scott Erickson and the increasing pressure eventually came to a head. The sport-caster revealed she was eight to 12 weeks pregnant when she felt an "intensifying pain" in her abdomen during a live segment in 2003. She noted, "I pushed through and did my reports. When I felt a dampness between my legs, I thought, 'Oh, I got my period.'"
She wrote, "And then I remembered I was pregnant. I was having a miscarriage! I could feel blood leaking. The officials' bathroom was in the tunnel behind me. 'I'm going to the bathroom,' I told my assistant, whose job was to race around the field with me. He looked at me as if I were insane. 'They're about to throw to you.'"
Guerrero somehow collected all her strength and ended up giving her live report, despite feeling "dizzy" and "nauseated" the entire time. "The pain was excruciating," she wrote. Guerreo added, "I heard myself mispronounce a player's name and knew I'd hear about it later [from Gaudelli]. As soon as I finished, I raced off to interview a coach. Then I headed to the bathroom. As I sat on the toilet, I couldn't believe the blood pouring out of me. It had soaked through my pants. I shoved a bunch of paper towels in my underwear."
When the game ended, Guerrero wrote she was supposed to speak with Gaudelli. Instead, she headed straight to a plane, where she "changed clothes, and dumped my underwear and pants in the garbage can." She said that she doesn’t want to blame anyone for her miscarriage. "The miscarriage wasn't because of Freddie, and it wasn't because of one radio talk show host or one bad column," she said, adding, "It was a culmination of the entire season of negativity and cruelty. It was really cruel."