90s TV star Sarah Cawood reflects on TV career and industry 'misogyny'
TV star Sarah Cawood has called out industry ‘misogyny’ as she took fans on a look back at her career.
The 90s star, who fronted TV shows including Live and Kicking, Top of the Pops and Night Fever, took to Instagram at the weekend where she showed off her ‘museum of failures’ but told fans it wasn’t a ‘pity post’.
Over a series of posts to her Instagram Stories, the 53-year-old revealed that she repeatedly lost jobs when her male co-hosts left.
“This IS NOT A PITY POST! It’s just interesting to see what’s happened to me behind the scenes over the years and also: THE F*****G MISOGYNY!” she wrote.
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“EVERY TIME a male cohost left, I was told I had to go too!! WTAF?? That would never be allowed to happen now.
“I’m going through a huge box of old photos so expect lots more of these fabulous old photos! I’m having a jolly old trip down memory lane!”
The mum-of-two then gave a run-down of her career beginning with being kicked out of the Royal Ballet at just 17.
Cawood went on to say that in 1996, she landed a job on a new music show only to be dropped and replaced by Marguerita Taylor.
“Did Night Fever for Channel 5: such fun! When Will Mellor left, they decided to replace me too. Apparently a woman can't stay on telly if her TV OH leaves,” she said.
Cawood said the same thing happened again a few years later when she was fronting a show called Singled Out.
She wrote: “Did Singled Out with Richard Blackwood: when he left to pursue his music career, I was told they would be replacing us both because again, how could I possibly carry on hosting without him?
“Was replaced by Tess Daly and Marc Crumpton. The show was shelved after one more series.”
Last year, Cawood shared a candid post in which she admitted to feeling ‘left out’ and ‘jealous’ now she no longer works in TV.
“I made the mistake of doom-scrolling this morning and all my former peers are just SLAYING it… it’s hard to explain, but I just feel really…left out,” she wrote in September.
“It’s so silly to say that at 53, I feel jealous.
"All my former TV buddies, plus new friends I’ve met here and they all seem to be at events with each other, working together and THRIVING. And here’s the thing: I couldn’t be more pleased or proud of those women but I miss them… and I miss being one of them.”
Outside of her TV work, Cawood wed TV producer Andy Merry in 2012 and went on to have two children Hunter, 13, and daughter Autumn, 12.
In 2022, she announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer the previous year but was now cancer-free.
Topics: TV and Film
Claire Reid