Super Bowl Reporter Kaylee Hartung Opens Up About Devastating Family Tragedy
This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.
Kaylee Hartung is an NBC Sports broadcaster who is working as a sideline reporter for Super Bowl LX. How she got here is a miracle in itself. Super Bowl 60 will be played on Feb. 8 and will pit the New England Patriots vs. the Seattle Seahawks. It will be a rematch of the 2014 Super Bowl.
She will be working alongside Melissa Stark, marking her first Super Bowl assignment, according to the Associated Press via Fox Sports.
On the field will be the reporter, who is carrying a heavy moment that happened in her life. The Emmy-nominated NFL sideline reporter and ‘Today’ show contributing correspondent had a tragic moment happen to her in her childhood.
Hartung, who has spent three seasons as Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football sideline reporter, lost her father as a child.
Kaylee Hartung Breaks Her Silence On The Death of Her Father
As much as Kaylee Hartung will treat Super Bowl LX like just another game and broadcast, she knows this one is different. The seasoned broadcast journalist is set to achieve a major milestone on Sunday.
Amid her career achievements, there is the heartbreak of not having a parent there to witness them. The Louisiana native recently opened up about an unspeakable family tragedy. It occurred when she was growing up. Her father was killed in a plane crash.
She was just 10 years old when her father died in a plane crash. She spoke about the experience during an appearance on Jay Glazer’s podcast, “Mental Wealth.”
“There’s a lot to unpack about the emotions of watching a plane crash happen when it’s the man you love the most, and he’s the only one in the plane,” Hartung said.
“But in that moment, thinking back on it at 10 years old, I didn’t think he was dead. Because to me, he was invincible. I saw the plane hit the ground, and I remember all the feelings.”
Kaylee Hartung was upset over how her father’s death was reported. “This report was not about the man who died. My father’s death was treated as an event,” Hartung said.
“Watching it at 10 years old, I didn’t understand why that’s the way the story was told or why his life wasn’t honored.”
A few years ago, she honored her dad on social media.
Her father is certainly watching down on her.
