You may remember Selena Roberts from her days at The New York Times, where she became notorious for her crusading columns about the Duke lacrosse rape case. Or maybe you know her from her stint as a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, where she was part of the rotation that replaced Rick Reilly in the magazine's then-storied back page. In 2009, Roberts and a colleague broke the story that Alex Rodriguez had tested positive for steroids in 2003. Sports Illustrated's managing editor at the time, Terry McDonell, called it the "biggest news break" in his tenure at the magazine....
.... She's popped up a couple times since—most recently for a story on her own startup website about a kinda-maybe scandal at Auburn—but whenever her name has resurfaced, she has been described as "former Sports Illustrated and New York Times writer Selena Roberts." How did someone so firmly ensconced in the media establishment so quickly fade away? What exactly happened to Selena Roberts?Here's what happened: In September 2010, about a year before Roberts would leave Sports Illustrated, her mother, Robbie Elizabeth Roberts, died. Roberts began cleaning up her mother's modest house in Arizona a few hours later."My mom lived a very austere life and did not make that much money," Roberts told me. Robbie had been a teacher with a taste for numbers. She'd also worked in Florida as a health care policy analyst for the state, and according to her obituary she was a licensed real estate broker as well. "I called her frugal and she laughed at me a few times because she said she was thrifty, not frugal."While combing through her mom's possessions, Roberts found a strange-looking booklet. She had never seen it before. On the cover, it read: "IN CASE OF EMERGENCY. FOR SELENA AND SHAWN." (Shawn is Roberts's brother.)Inside she found millions of dollars. Not literally—"stocks and bonds, and some real estate," according to Roberts. "She made some good decisions I wasn't aware of," she said, laughing....MORE
That's all interesting but here's the bit that caught my attention:
...Roberts wasn't exactly hurting for money. Her contract at SI netted her $400,000 a year. Maybe that explains why she said her mother's fortune was "not change-your-life money, but it did help my life."...
$400,000?
Who knew?
