Sports Media Podcast: For first time, Fox Sports Charissa Thompson discusses theft of private photos

June 2024 · 8 minute read

It was a perfect day in Los Angeles, and as she walked out of her bank and into the sunshine of a January sky, Fox Sports NFL host Charissa Thompson recalled that she took a moment to consider how fortunate she was to be living in a city she adored and had a life she loved. Moments later came a phone call from her best friend, Sara Walsh, the sportscaster and former ESPN SportsCenter host.  

“Sara said, ‘Oh my God, you are on the internet,’” Thompson recalled this week. “I was like, ‘Wait, what?’ I immediately Googled my name and all this stuff popped up. The next call I made was to (Fox Sports sideline reporter) Erin Andrews and I just lost it. I started screaming. She was the person I called because no one else I knew had been through that, and she was such a huge, huge support system for me and still is now with the stuff I am going through. She felt it on a level I can’t even begin to understand given the nature of what happened to her. I just remember thinking this can’t be real.”

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Unfortunately, it was too real. A hacker or hackers had stolen nude photos of Thompson from her iCloud and shared them online. For the first time publicly, Thompson discussed this incomprehensible invasion of privacy during a 52-minute conversation on this week’s Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch.

“The pictures were obviously from a relationship I had been in,” Thompson said. “These were from so long ago. It was really, really tough. Of course, there was embarrassment. Look, I am very open with my life and I don’t hide a lot of things, but when it comes to your physical being and intimate photos between you and your boyfriend and things that you sent to someone when you were in a long distance relationship and in love, it is your private property. So it felt – the obvious– like such an invasion. But then the depths I am still taking to get back that privacy are unbelievable. The way I equate is someone came into my home, robbed my home of all its possessions, put it out in the cul-de-sac right in front of me, and I had to buy all of it right back to put back in my house.”

Thompson said she drew on a big support system including Andrews, Walsh, her agent, and legal experts recommended by Andrews and her manager.  

“I was in a really bad place for a while after that because I started questioning me,” Thompson said. “I am so open with a lot of things in my life and this was so private and it was really tough. I get emotional talking about…It was just really shitty. I try to bring levity to a lot of situations and laugh stuff off but this one was tough. I felt dumb that I had left those pictures there.”

She wondered if she could go to this year’s Super Bowl in Minneapolis, but she forged ahead, using levity to disarm her friends and acquaintances who wondered how to address her.  She would often joke, “Yeah, just Google me” to lighten the mood.

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“A lot of how I was raised was it is not what happens to you — it is how you react with what happens to you,” Thompson said.

“It sucks but I am a next play person. So that was shitty, but I’m going to take the necessary steps to go after that person and that is what I am doing.”

Thompson said she plans to use all her resources to find the person or persons who committed this crime, but the costs are significant, she said, beyond the emotional energy. She called it an “astronomical of money” she is spending.

“The digital footprint isn’t DNA,” Thompson said. “You can mask who you are on the Internet compared to a physical crime that has been committed. But I am going to play a full game here. I am not going to give up in the third quarter.”

In the podcast, Thompson discussed another law enforcement issue – a stranger attempting to break into her house and how her friend and former ESPN Radio host Ryen Russillo confronted the man on her property. She also discussed re-signing with Fox Sports last August, the preliminary discussions she had with Mike Greenberg on the possibility of working with him on a morning show. That show ultimately became Get Up! featuring Greenberg, Michelle Beadle and Jalen Rose.

“I spoke with him (Greenberg) a number of different times,” said Thompson, who hosts Fox NFL Kickoff and NFL Films Presents on FS1. “There was not an offer from ESPN saying take it or leave it. These were just conversations between me and Greenberg and a couple of different people. Ultimately, it worked out as it did. Fox has been incredible to me and they came and said here’s an offer to do X, Y and Z and I made a decision to stay at Fox because it was the best thing for me.”

PODCAST BREAKDOWN

1:00: Why Thompson decided to re-sign with Fox last year.

6:10: Her conversations with ESPN’s Mike Greenberg about potentially working with him.

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14:00: How hackers stole nude photos of her off her iCloud and shared them online.

19:20: Getting justice for the invasion and seeing people at the Super Bowl for the first time after the hack.

23:30: Whether Top Gun 2 is a good idea.

25:00: How Ryen Russillo became her temporary roommate.

34:00: Adjusting to a certain level of fame.

42:00: Her social media strategy when it comes to politics on Twitter.

46:00: Gambling on sports and growing up at the racetrack in Seattle.

48:00: Seattle getting hockey.

The Ink Report

1. For my Monday column for The Athletic Ink, I examined some prospective NBA Finals over the next couple of years that could (key word) draw in the viewership vicinity of what has been a major success story for the NBA over the last four years with the Warriors-Cavs. Also, given the unprecedented nature of the Bryan Colangelo story, I checked in with three Hall of Fame NBA journalists (Mark Heisler, K.C. Johnson, and Jack McCallum) to get their thoughts on whether they had covered anything remotely close during their careers.

2. Game 2 of the NBA Finals drew 18.5 million viewers, down from Game 2 last year (19.69 million viewers), but up from 2016 (17.49 million viewers). ESPN said it is the third-largest Game 2 viewership since 2001.

2a. The Stanley Cup Final through Game 4 had averaged a Total Audience Delivery of 4.443 million viewers across NBC, NBCSN, NBCSports.com, and the NBC Sports app, up over 4.232 million for the Predators-Penguins.

2b. Sports Business Daily assistant managing editor Austin Karp reported that the MLB Network drew a 0.3 overnight rating for the first two rounds of the draft, the most-watched MLB Draft so far.

3. The Athletic reported earlier this week that Allie LaForce has left CBS Sports after she and her representatives could not come to a new deal with the network. On Monday, CBS Sports named Jamie Erdahl as the new lead sideline reporter for its SEC on CBS football package. LaForce currently works for Turner Sports, and Mike McCarthy of the Sporting News suggested that LaForce could become the lead reporter for the NBA on TNT. That position (the lead reporter) has not been filled since the passing of Craig Sager.

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4. Four sports pieces worth reading:

5. Former Buffalo Bills quarterback and Hall of Famer Jim Kelly will be honored with the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance at The 2018 ESPYS.

5a. ESPN announced earlier this week that it had reached a multi-year extension with NBA game analyst Doris Burke. She will continue to serve as a full-time NBA game analyst and a reporter for several NBA games, including for ESPN and ABC’s coverage of the NBA Finals and the NBA Conference Finals.

5b. Telemundo Deportes, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, will air all 64 games of the competition live on Telemundo or Universo, with same-day encore presentations of each game every night on Universo. All 64 games will also be live-streamed in Spanish via the Telemundo Deportes En Vivo and NBC Sports apps.

The network said daily game coverage during the opening round will begin most days at 7 a.m. ET, beginning with a 30-minute pregame show. Telemundo will air each of the day’s games at 7:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. ET. During the last week of the group stage, from June 25 through June 28 when games are played simultaneously in each group, both games will air live on Telemundo and Universo.

Universo will carry encore presentations of each day’s games beginning at 5 p.m. ET every day from June 15 through June 24. During the last week of the group stage, encores will begin at 4:30 p.m. ET. For the round of 16 and through the final, encore presentations will air each night beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

(Top photo: Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)

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