“Last night, she abruptly resigned,” said ESPN ‘s Stephen A. Smith of his longtime First Take cohort, Molly Qerim , this afternoon. “The details, quite frankly, are none of y’all business,” he said, before explaining her departure came after contract negotiations with the network.

“ESPN certainly did not want to lose her,” Smith continued, “but in the end she made the decision to walk away from the show.”

The news was first reported by Sports Business Journal and later confirmed by the longtime First Take host herself.

Qerim indicated that the news had come out “earlier than I had intended, and not in the way that I hoped.”

She continued, “After much reflection, I’ve decided it’s time to close this incredible chapter and step away from First Take,” Qerim wrote on her Inst

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