HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Brooke Hundley, the former ESPN production assistant whose affair with baseball analyst Steve Phillips led to their firings from the cable network, is speaking out for the first time.
Hundley, 22, appeared on Thursday's Good Morning America, where she explained why she contacted the broadcaster's family to expose the affair.
"I did things I regret, obviously. People make mistakes at 22," she said. "That's what I was trying not to do originally, was hurt anybody else or affect anybody else's lives negatively. But I did things and I thought about things just as an avenue to get people to pay attention, to start asking the right questions, to get me out of a bad situation."
Phillips admitted to the affair as soon as it hit the tabloids last month. He also took a leave of absence, only to be fired a short time later. He has since entered rehab for a sex addiction, while also seeing his wife, Marni, file for divorce.
In addition to getting fired herself, Hundley has been ridiculed all over the media.
"I've been called things by the public that no woman should ever be called," she said. "I couldn't go a day without getting, you know, 200 messages in my inbox from people that have never met me, just labeling, just calling me names. I've been called the 'C' word. I've been called a whore. I've been called a homewrecker."
"When not only were tabloids covering it but legitimate news was covering it. When Jay Leno was using my looks as part of his opening monologue to get a cheap laugh," Hundley continued. "At that point, you know, a person has their breaking point. That was my breaking point. I had a friend who had to come stay with me because she was concerned that mentally I would not be able to take much more. "
Hundley told GMA that with all of the public attention, she can understand the pain that Phillips' wife felt.
"I mean, I don't expect her to come running out to support me, to be on my side," she said. "Obviously, there's a lot of details that I can't talk about. But do I feel bad bringing her into a situation that I couldn't control that really wasn't about her? Absolutely."
"I would never have wanted anybody else to feel or to go through what I was going through," she added. "I brought it on, but not intentionally. I simply wanted somebody to get upset enough to have an impact, to get me out of this horrific situation."
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