Miss America Contestants Speak Out About Alleged Mistreatment from Pageant Executives in New Series

A&E's 'Secrets of Miss America' explores "how pageant culture perpetuated racism, bullying, body shaming, and much more"

Miss America is more than a beauty pageant — and over the years, the country's oldest beauty pageant has been marred by controversy.

A&E's Secrets of Miss America, debuting Monday, offers a peek behind the curtain at the inner workings of the storied competition. In it, 20-plus former contestants speak out about the alleged mistreatment they experienced from execs at the Miss America organization, describing how alleged slights sometimes took a severe toll on their mental health.

"The special analyzes whistle blower leaked emails in 2017 exposing misogyny within the Board of Directors, claims of racism in the pageant’s history, the topic of mental health surrounding the competition and the banning of the controversial swimsuit competition," reads a description of the series, which also promises viewers will "get a glimpse at the cost of wearing the crown and sash and how pageant culture perpetuated racism, bullying, body shaming, and much more."

Miss America 2010 Caressa Cameron Jackson tells PEOPLE the series highlights the extent of the mental health struggles some contestants have faced due to exhaustion, loneliness, over-work and more.

“The immense amount of pressure that comes along with working towards something like this and upholding that standard for a year — the rigorous workload, the loneliness, I think that’s the thing that people don't get," she says.

Dating back to 1921 (one year after women won the right to vote), Miss America was a benchmark of modern womanhood for decades. In the televised annual contest, young women from every state compete to win the crown, as well as $50K in scholarship money and the chance to travel the country, speaking out about a social cause they believe in.

But as the women’s liberation movement grew, more Americans began fighting against systemic sexism and racism, and in 1968, feminist activist Carol Hanisch led a protest against the show’s perceived misogyny. Miss America’s popularity has waned ever since. In 2019, the contest drew only 3.6 million viewers, while in 1954, it raked in a whopping 27 million, per NBC Los Angeles.

Related: Why Former Miss America, Who Was Crowned in 1958, Is Auctioning Off Her Crown

The first episode of the new A&E series mainly centers on former Miss America Mallory Hagan, who alleges she was bullied, body-shamed, and slut-shamed by former Miss America CEO Sam Haskell, along with some of his colleagues.

In 2017, internal emails allegedly sent by Haskell mocking the appearance, intelligence and sex lives of the pageant’s past winners were leaked by Hagan’s ex-boyfriend, Brent Adams (also Haskell’s former employee). The messages were published by HuffPo, and Haskell, along with other top execs, resigned shortly after the scandal broke.

In a statement included in the documentary, Haskell said that “Much of what was reported is dishonest, deceptive, and despicable. The material is based on private emails that were stolen [...] by ex-employees. Those who know my heart know that this is not indicative of my character, nor is it indicative of my business acumen."

“I had the utmost respect for the women of this program and contestants at every level," Haskell added.

Related: Miss America Loses TV Partnership After CEO Is Accused of Fat-Shaming Winners

In the episode, Hagan claims Haskell called her “a whore and trailer trash” years after her 2013 win. She also claimed that Haskell strategically plotted to destroy her coaching business.

In one leaked email that was published in HuffPo, and referenced in the episode, a colleague of Haskell’s wrote, "Mallory’s preparing for her new career … as a blimp in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade,” with Haskell allegedly responding, “...we lost count of the number of men she slept with at 25.”

Hagan said in the episode that at one point, she thought about ending her own life.

Jackson tells PEOPLE she was not shocked by the allegations against Haskell. “I think secretly maybe he wanted to be Miss America," she says.

Jackson herself never had a great relationship with Haskell, partly because of an awkward interaction that involved her mother, she claims.

"My mother, who works for the federal government, secured an appearance for me to sing at the White House Christmas Tree Lighting,” Jackson recalls. “Since she had top security clearance, she sent the [Miss America] organization an email saying that she would serve as my traveling companion that day.”

Haskell, Jackson alleges, “thought my mom was a little bit too big for her britches” and accidentally hit "Reply All" when responding to an email chain about the upcoming event.

“He's like, ‘Who does she think she is?’ -- basically saying my mom thought too much of herself," Jackson alleges. "I hit reply all too...and I [said,] ‘My mom was able to secure an appearance that you all have never been able to secure. Maybe you [should] thank her for opening this door."

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Jackson is one of only eight Black women to win Miss America (the first was Vanessa Williams in 1984), and in the years since, she’s grown increasingly passionate about evening the pageant’s playing field. She’s served on a diversity and inclusion task force for the organization, and works to diversify the judging panels.

“There has to be someone represented from different races, different age groups, sexual orientations," she says, adding that viewers "are going to be surprised to learn about some of the undertones of racism that have played into the history of the pageant.

“The landscape of the country at a certain time, of course, was very segregated," she adds. "But there was never any real policy or structures put into place [at the organization]."

Jackson also hopes the powers that be within the organization will watch the series and incorporate ways to become more forward-thinking. “I'm hoping that by us being willing to share our story, that the people who are in charge now will see it, will hear it, will understand our heart behind it, and affect some of those changes so that for the next hundred years, [future] Miss America's will have nothing but wonderful things to say," she says.

The first episode of Secrets of Miss America airs Monday at 10 p.m. ET on A&E.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.

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