ESPN lets go of betting analyst Kelly Stewart before network debut due to past tweets

Set to start in her role as a betting analyst on various ESPN platforms this month, Kelly Stewart has been let go by the network after past tweets -- since deleted -- surfaced. 

ESPN notified Stewart of her termination "due to deleted tweets from 2012," she wrote in a statement posted on Twitter on Friday. 

Front Office Sports first broke news of Stewart's firing, with an ESPN spokesman confirming she was no longer with the network. ESPN did not disclose the reason she was let go. Front Office Sports reported she had used an anti-gay slur.

"I know the words I used are unacceptable and hurtful but I cannot apologize for the vicious attacks I, and so many other female personalities, endure from anonymous online trolls," she wrote in her statement. 

Stewart had been a betting analyst for Bleacher Report, the Las Vegas Review-Journal and other outlets. She said one of her prior employers had already disciplined her. 

“I wish ESPN had been willing to stand behind me, particularly because I’d already been suspended for these Tweets by another company several years ago, but I cannot control their decision," Stewart wrote. "I can only say I’m sorry for the person I was and some of the mistakes I made in my youth."  

At ESPN, Stewart was slated to contribute to the weekday studio show "The Daily Wager," podcasts and other platforms for the network. She would have started on the air this month.