President and COO Josh Randle has also submitted his resignation, according to the Huffington Post. 
 
 Sam Haskell, CEO of the Miss America Organization, has submitted his resignation amid an unfolding scandal involving unearthed vulgar emails he sent about contestants. Chairman Lynn Weidner, who sent some of the emails included in the initial report, has also resigned. 
 
 The developments come one day after the Miss America Organization board of directors voted to suspend Haskell pending an investigation into disparaging internal emails about contestants. The Huffington Post first published the emails Thursday, showing Haskell commenting crudely on the appearances of women who had competed in the pageant to other members of the organization. 
 
 Josh Randle, president and COO, has also resigned, along with fellow member Tammy Haddad, HuffPost's Yashar Ali first reported on Saturday. 
 
 The board had announced it would be conducting an investigation into the alleged inappropriate communications, telling The Hollywood Reporter on Friday: "The Board wishes to reaffirm our commitment to the education and empowerment of young women, supporting them in every way possible." 
 
 Dan Meyers, who has stepped in as interim chairman, confirmed Haskell's resignation is effective immediately. 
 
 “This afternoon, the Board of Directors of the Miss America Organization accepted the resignation of Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sam Haskell, effective immediately," he said in a statement. "The Board of Directors also accepted the resignation of Chairman Lynn Weidner. At the Board’s request, Ms. Weidner has agreed to remain on the Board for up to ninety days to facilitate a smooth transition for the MAO to new leadership." 
 
 Adding, "The Board thanks Lynn and Sam for many years of tireless work for, and significant financial support to, both the Miss America Organization and thousands of young women who received millions of dollars of educational scholarships from the Organization as a direct result of their efforts.” 
 
 Randle will also stay on for a few weeks to hep the transition. "Earlier today, in light of recent events and new developments, the Miss America Organization’s Board of Directors received and accepted the resignation of President & COO Josh Randle," said a spokesperson in a statement to THR. "At the Board’s request, Josh has agreed to remain in his current current capacity for several weeks to facilitate a smooth transition." 
 
 1989 Miss America Gretchen Carlson, who reportedly clashed with Haskell and was one of many targets in the ousted CEO's emails, released a statement on Twitter following the news. 
 
 "While it is reassuring that some of the perpetrators of the abuses within the Miss America Organization have resigned, this by no means fulfills the need for a thorough housecleaning of the Board," she said, calling for more board members who were involved with the unfolding scandal to step forward and resign. "We will continue to demand the resignations of every individual who either participated in the abuse of women or stood by and was complicit by failing to conduct proper due diligence." 
 
 She added, "This Board has lost the trust of the country. For the good of the organization, they must step away." 
 
 In the emails Haskell, who was formerly executive vp and head of TV at the William Morris Agency, jokes about renaming former Miss America winners "C—s" and calls the past winners a "pile of malcontent," among other misogynistic and fat-shaming claims. 
 
 Haskell called the claims "unkind and untrue," though he did not specify which belonged in the latter category. “Much of what was reported is dishonest, deceptive, and despicable. The material is based on private emails that were stolen three years ago by ex-employees," he said in his statement. 
 
 Dick Clark Productions, which has a three-year deal with the Miss America Organization to produce the TV pageants, said the company was "appalled" by the content of the emails and that after being made aware of allegations of sexual misconduct in August 2017, terminated its relationship with the Miss America Organization. "Shortly thereafter, we resigned our board positions and notified MAO that we were terminating our relationship with them," said the statement in part. 
 
 ABC airs the annual pageant, which takes place in Atlantic City and is hosted by Chris Harrison. 
 
 Dec. 23, 12 p.m.: Updated with Haskell's resignation; MAO statement. 
 
 Dec. 23, 3:27 p.m.: Updated with Carlson's statement. ||||| CLOSE CEO Sam Haskell, president and COO Josh Randle and board chairwoman Lynn Weidner have all stepped down after internal emails were published showing Miss America contestants described with vulgar and offensive language. Wochit 
 
 Miss America chief executive officer Sam Haskell is shown with Miss America 2018 Cara Mund, on Sept. 10, 2017, after the pageant held in Atlantic City. (Photo: Thomas P. Costello, Asbury Park Press-USA TODAY NETWORK) 
 
 Three Miss America Organization leaders have resigned following an email scandal in which vulgar, offensive language was used to describe former Miss America contestants, USA TODAY confirmed Saturday. 
 
 The resignation of its Executive Chairman and Chief Executive, Sam Haskell, who was suspended from the organization Friday as he was put under investigation, will be effective immediately, according to a statement from interim chairman Dan Meyers. 
 
 The board further accepted the resignation of chairman Lynn Weidner along with President and Chief Operating Officer Josh Randle. The two will remain in their current positions for several more weeks to "facilitate a smooth transition," according to Meyers' statement. 
 
 The organization said its board of directors accepted Randle's resignation Saturday "in light of recent events and new developments." 
 
 ► Friday: Miss America CEO Sam Haskell suspended over offensive emails 
 
 ► Friday: 131 so far accused of sexual misconduct in 'Harvey Weinstein effect' 
 
 The Miss America Organization was rocked following the release of internal emails published Thursday on Huffington Post. The published messages showed offensive language Haskell used to describe 2013 Miss America Mallory Hagan — describing her as "fat and gross" in one note. 
 
 In another exchange from August 2014, Haskell received an email that said Hagan’s hairdresser had been commenting on Hagan’s sex life as well as her recent weight gain. 
 
 Miss New York Mallory Hagan reacts as she is crowned Miss America 2013 in Las Vegas. (Photo: Isaac Brekken, AP) 
 
 Haskell forwarded the email to Miss America telecast lead writer Lewis Friedman and noted, “Not a single day passes that I am not told some horrible story about Mallory.” 
 
 Friedman replied, “Mallory’s preparing for her new career … as a blimp in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. As she continues to destroy her own credibility, her voice will attract less and less notice while she continues her descent to an unhappy pathetic footnote.” 
 
 Friedman ended the email with this: “P.S. Are we four the only ones not to have (slept with) Mallory?” 
 
 ► Thursday: Miss America chief exec accused of slut-shaming, fat-shaming winners 
 
 ► Sept. 12: Miss America 2018 on wanting to run for office, winning crown 
 
 Haskell replied, “It appears we are the only ones!” 
 
 Haskell had been suspended pending the investigation. 
 
 "Much of what was reported is dishonest, deceptive, and despicable," he said in a statement released Friday. "The material is based on private emails that were stolen three years ago by ex-employees. The story is so unkind and untrue, and hurts me, my family, and the stewardship of this non-profit." 
 
 Miss America CEO Sam Haskell is shown with Miss America 2017 Savvy Shields. (Photo: Thomas P. Costello) 
 
 Hagan was among dozens of former Miss Americas who signed a petition, which Miss North Carolina 1991 Jennifer Vaden Barth started Friday, calling on the group's leadership to step down. The petition called the emails from Haskell and others “despicable” and faulted officials who “sat by without objection while such derisive comments were passed around.” 
 
 On Jan. 25, 2015, Haskell forwarded a photo of Hagan with three other former Miss Americas to Randle and said, “Look at MH in this photo...OMG," the Huffington Post reported. 
 
 Randle reportedly replied, “She’s a healthy one!! Hahaha.” 
 
 ► Sept. 11: Miss Texas slams Trump's Charlottesville comments 
 
 ► Sept. 10: Miss North Dakota Cara Mund takes Miss America crown 
 
 On Saturday, Randle told The Associated Press that his comment responding to an email to his private account about Hagan's physical appearance came months before he started working for the Miss America Organization in 2015. But he said it was wrong. 
 
 “I apologize to Mallory for my lapse in judgment,” Randle said. “It does not reflect my values or the values I worked to promote at the Miss America Organization. Although this terrible situation was not caused or driven by me, in light of recent events and new developments, I am no longer willing to continue in my capacity as president and earlier today offered my resignation to the MAO Board of Directors. 
 
 “I feel terrible, but this is the right thing to do,” he said. 
 
 ► Sept. 9: Road for Miss Missouri, first openly gay contestant, to pageant 
 
 ► Sept. 8: Miss Louisiana wins swimsuit competition on Night 2 
 
 Randle said his resignation was voluntary and the board of Miss America, based in Atlantic City, N.J., had not requested it. In May at age 29, Randle became the youngest president of the Miss America organization in its history. 
 
 Haskell joined Miss America’s board in 2005 after retiring from the William Morris Agency, now called WME, where he was the worldwide head of television. 
 
 Gretchen Carlson, 1989 Miss America, tweeted a statement from herself and Kate Shindle, 1998 Miss America, Saturday calling the resignations "reassuring" but adding "this by no means fulfills the need for a thorough housecleaning of the Board." 
 
 "We will continue to demand the resignations of every individual who either participated in the abuse of women or stood by and was complicit," the statement said. 
 
 Follow Sara M. Moniuszko and Bryan Alexander on Twitter: @SaraMoniuszko and @BryAlexand 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2BrXeLr ||||| After a report exposed emails from Sam Haskell, CEO and executive chairman of the Miss America Organization, that harshly disparaged pageant winners and former Miss Americas -- revealing correspondence that called the women vulgar names and made misogynistic comments about looks and sexual behavior -- 49 former Miss Americas issued an open letter calling for his resignation. 
 
 Hours later, the Miss America board of directors announced it had voted to suspend Haskell. 
 
 "Mr. Haskell, in support of the organization, has agreed to abide by the Board's decision," the pageant board said in a statement. "The Board will be conducting an in-depth investigation into alleged inappropriate communications and the nature in which they were obtained. In addition, the Board wishes to reaffirm our commitment to the education and empowerment of young women, supporting them in every way possible." 
 
 Yet in a statement sent out by the pageant organization soon after, Haskell remained defiant. "My mistake is a mistake of words," he said. 
 
 Haskell said he would cooperate with the suspension but questioned the veracity of the emails, claiming the messages were edited and calling the story "so unkind and untrue." The pageant boss, who makes $500,000 a year, said the story "hurts me, my family, and the stewardship of this non-profit." 
 
 HuffPost, which had published the story about Haskell's emails on Thursday, shared the letter from the former Miss Americas on Friday. In it, pageant alumni also called for the resignation of Josh Randle, president of the Atlantic City organization; Lynn Weidner, chair of the board of directors; and Tammy Haddad, vice-chair of the board. Haddad then became the first to resign. 
 
 The former Miss Americas endorsing the letter span 69 years of pageant history, from BeBe Shopp Waring, Miss America 1948, to Savvy Shields, Miss America 2017. The reigning Miss America, Cara Mund, 24, has not addressed the conflagration of criticism directed at Haskell other pageant figures. But another former Miss America, Betty Cantrell, said the emails finally freed her to expose a culture of fear that surrounded the pageant, one in which she was forbidden from meeting with certain past winners -- Kate Shindle (1998), Gretchen Carlson (1989) and Mallory Hagan (2013), the same pageant alums mentioned in Haskell's messages to staff. 
 
 "As dedicated members of communities, businesses and families, and ambassadors for the Miss America program across the country, we stand firmly against harassment, bullying and shaming -- especially of women -- through the use of derogatory terms meant to belittle and demean," the letter reads, in part. "As Miss Americas, we strongly reject the mischaracterization of us both collectively and individually. We also reject the ongoing efforts to divide our sisterhood and the attempts to pit us against one another." 
 
 But the former Miss Americas, whose reigns encompassed the pre-broadcast era of the pageant as well as the age of social media, did not ask for Haskell to be suspended -- they asked for his immediate resignation. 
 
 "We also ask those who revere the Miss America legacy to join us in preserving the integrity of the Miss America Organization and in supporting all women, rather than tearing them down," the statement concluded. 
 
 So it took you 24 hours to come up with this sorry excuse of a lie? Maybe if you had an interview coach it wouldn't have been so difficult. [?] [?] [?] https://t.co/cvLdWIr6sG -- Mallory Hagan (@ItsMalloryHagan) December 23, 2017 
 
 Earlier on Friday, Haddad announced that she would be leaving the pageant board after 14 years as a volunteer, which she claims she had previously told Haskell that she planned to do anyway, HuffPost reports. 
 
 "I want to advise the board that this is effective immediately and wish you all the best," she said. Randle and Weidner have not spoken publicly about the internal pageant emails. 
 
 The email messages show Haskell corresponding with Lewis Friedman, a former scriptwriter for the pageant telecast, who was fired by the pageant after the emails were leaked. Friedman had referred to former Miss Americas as "c***s," which earned a "bahahaha" from Haskell; he also suggested that when a former Miss America died, it "should have been" Kate Shindle, Miss America 1998, who had been critical of Haskell's pageant salary in her book. 
 
 
 
 
 
 In the emails, Haskell also criticizes Mallory Hagan, Miss America 2013, for her weight, calling her "huge" and "gross" -- Friedman says her new career would be "as a blimp in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade -- and fixates on her sex life, suggesting that someone who was intimate with her should get a blood test (Friedman: "Are we four the only ones not to have f***ed Mallory?" Haskell: "It appears we are the only ones!"). Haskell, Weidner and Haddad also talk about an effort to sabotage Hagan's interview coaching business by banning her services at the pageant, with Haddad suggesting that Haskell hire an investigator to dig up dirt on the former Miss New York. 
 
 "So it took you 24 hours to come up with this sorry excuse of a lie?" Hagan tweeted in response to Haskell's statement on Friday. "Maybe if you had an interview coach it wouldn't have been so difficult." 
 
 After Weidner asked former Miss Americas to defend Haskell from criticisms in Shindle's book, former Miss America and Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, who reportedly faced resistance in her desire to modernize the pageant, said she was not willing to attack individuals. In response, in a message to Haskell, Haddad called Carlson a "snake." 
 
 Hagan, Carlson and Shindle were among the first to speak out on social media after the emails came to light, either calling for Haskell to step down or for the entire board of directors to do so. 
 
 The Miss America Organization, in a statement, said it had conducted an investigation of the emails -- which were brought to the attention of pageant partner Dick Clark Productions by former Miss America staffer Brent Adams and former board member Regina Hopper -- finding that "at the time in question, three to four years ago, Mr. Haskell was under unreasonable distress resulting from intense attacks on his family from disgruntled stakeholders." 
 
 Friedman was fired, but Haskell remained at the helm of the organization. That wasn't enough for Dick Clark Productions, which had reportedly hoped the emails would spur a change in the pageant leadership. The company parted ways with Miss America. 
 
 In a statement to HuffPost on Friday, Leonard Horn, who served as the pageant's CEO from 1987 to 1998, also called on Haskell to resign. 
 
 "Your attitude towards these women, as expressed in your e-mails, is blatantly antagonistic to the core mission of MAO," he said. 
 
 In 2016, the state Casino Reinvestment Development Authority reached a deal with the pageant that would provide $12.5 million to the organization over three years. The agreement carries Miss America (which, like the CRDA, is headquartered in Boardwalk Hall) through the next pageant, in September 18, which is also the end of its current contract with ABC. 
 
 Don Guardian, mayor of Atlantic City, spoke out against the emails and called for "everyone who was involved" with them to resign. 
 
 "I strongly condemn the language and derogatory comments used by the CEO of the Miss America Organization," he said. "This is not acceptable on any level. Each and every Miss America contestant deserves our utmost respect." 
 
 
 
 
 
 Also on Friday, Miss America 2016, Betty Cantrell, who is currently working on building her career as a budding country singer, took to Instagram for a live video to sound off on Haskell and the pageant leadership. 
 
 Saying she had been holding back for a long time, Cantrell said many thought she seemed unhappy during her "year of service" -- the organization's preferred term for the titleholder's reign -- which was true. 
 
 "It was the toughest year of my life," she said. 
 
 Cantrell, 23, began crying as she recounted seeing "multiple staff members" get fired for speaking out about the leadership, leave the pageant because of problems or remain terrified they would be fired if they didn't keep quiet. 
 
 A former pageant staffer who wished to remain anonymous told NJ Advance Media that there was a mass exodus of female staffers after Randle, a "golden boy" in Haskell's eyes, was installed at the new president and chief operating officer in 2015. Would she return if he and Haskell exited? 
 
 "In a heartbeat," she said. "It would be safe to say many of the staffers who left would return if asked, should the leadership change." 
 
 Cantrell also claimed the pageant also attempted to underpay her. 
 
 "They didn't think I would notice," she said, adding that she sympathized with Hagan when organizers instituted a new pageant rule that tanked her business. When her own reign was over, Cantrell's deal for a reality show with her fiance fell through after Haskell, the former worldwide head of television for the William Morris Agency, sent her a cease-and-desist letter, expressing his concern for how the show might reflect on the pageant organization, she said. In addition, an agency she was working with on her music stopped collaborating with Cantrell and her producer. She said she later found out the firm had a relationship with Haskell. 
 
 The former Miss Georgia said that in the run-up to the 2017 pageant, she was barred from addressing pageant contestants for more than 15 minutes at their orientation, for fear of what she might say about the pageant. Moreover, Miss America brass specifically told her to "disassociate" from Shindle, Carlson and Hagan, she said. 
 
 "We as women need to take this organization back," Cantrell said. 
 
 Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com . Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook
– Miss America chairman and CEO Sam Haskell resigned Saturday—just a day after saying he wouldn't, the New York Daily News reports. He was joined by chairman Lynn Weidner, president and COO Josh Randle, and board member Tammy Haddad. The resignations of Miss America leadership come after HuffPo published internal emails Thursday that feature Haskell calling a former Miss America winner "fat and gross" and joking that he's one of very few people who haven't had sex with her, according to USA Today. He also mused about renaming Miss America winners "c--ts," as per the Hollywood Reporter. On Friday, Haskell was suspended pending an investigation as 49 former Miss America winners signed a petition calling on pageant leadership to resign. Haskell remained adamant that he wouldn't resign over what he said were false accusations and a "mistake of words." In a statement, the Miss America Organization says Haskell's resignation will take effect immediately. Randle and Weidner will stay on for the coming weeks to "facilitate a smooth transition." "The board thanks Lynn and Sam for many years of tireless work for, and significant financial support to, both the Miss America Organization and thousands of young women," the statement reads. In addition, the board says it "will be conducting an in-depth investigation" into the emails.