Jayne Kennedy broke barriers as one of the first Black female sportscasters. Then, a sex scandal almost broke her

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — Jayne Kennedy can thank Oprah Winfrey in part for her new memoir, “Plain Jayne.”

Kennedy – who broke ground as the first Black woman crowned Miss Ohio in 1970 and blazed trails eight years later as a correspondent on CBS’s “The NFL Today” – told CNN in a recent interview that in 2010, Winfrey encouraged her to share her life story.

“She inspired me to go forward and I’m glad she did because it allowed me to actually delve into who am I,” Kennedy said. “Who am I at my authentic core? And it wasn’t just about writing about my career, it wasn’t just about writing about my family, it was writing about all of it.”

That “all” includes a scandal in the early 1990s when, following her divorce from actor Leon Isaac Kennedy, a tape of their intimate moments was leaked.

Well before Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian had their own sex scandals, Kennedy lost friends and business opportunities over the tape.

Not only does she not shy away from it, but Kennedy addresses it fairly early in the new book. Not that it was easy to revisit such a dark and painful part of her past.

“It was extremely difficult and I wanted that to be the last thing that I wrote,” she said. “I wrote the whole book originally before I settled in on writing that.”

“I still wasn’t sure in my heart as to what I wanted to say. I knew what happened and I knew how I wanted to say it, but I still had so many questions in my mind,” she added. “I know that people had those same questions and I knew that they were going to ask. So, you know, I had to be able to take a huge gulp.”

But with all of her achievements, why go there so quickly in her biography?

“I knew that if I didn’t tell that part of my truth, then people may doubt the rest of my truth,” Kennedy said. “And the whole purpose of writing the book was to tell my truth.”

Honesty has always been important to the woman who was born Jayne Harrison in Washington, DC, in 1951, growing up in Ohio and confidently telling family members that someday she would be a star.

Still, it took her decades to process, write the book and get it published, which Kennedy was determined to do.

Never giving up is something she and her husband, actor Bill Overton, have always imparted to their now grown daughters, Cheyenne, Savannah, Kopper and Zaire.

Being a mom, and now a grandmother, has been the biggest part of the 73-year-old’s life.

“I’ve been very transparent with my daughters, all four of them,” Kennedy said. “We have a tremendous relationship. We talk all the time.”

And while she’s been out of the limelight for many years, Kennedy feels more than ready to be open to her readers in the hope she can help others with her story of strength, empowerment and resilience.

“It’s not just about reaching back and trying to heal,” she said. “We have women that are suffering today and so if I can help, even in some small part, I want to.”

“Plain Jayne” hits bookstands on Tuesday.

The-CNN-Wire
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