J. Spencer Kinard says he suffered "serious depression" after resigning 26 months ago as announcer for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and news director of KSL-TV.
In an interview published in University Times, the alumni magazine of Weber State University, Kinard says he received psychiatric counseling and took anti-depressant medication after he quit both jobs in October 1990 to quell a controversy about his relationship with former KSL-TV anchorwoman Jennifer Howe, according to a college press release.Kinard said his depression resulted "from the hurt I brought to other people and to myself."
Kinard says he still faces a "struggle with depression, but it's not nearly as bad as it was."
Until now, Kinard has declined interviews about his controversial resignation. He says he agreed to a request from University Times because of "a special attachment to Weber State," where he was a student in 1963.
Kinard says he could have issued a public statement when he quit, but "chose not to say anything more" than his letter of resignation, in which he wrote that "it impossible for me to be effective."
"I've apologized to those people who were directly affected," Kinard said. "And I've admitted to them the mistakes I've made. I didn't feel as though I needed to go beyond that to the public."
Kinard said there was "no question" in his mind about resigning as Tabernacle Choir announcer because "I could no longer represent LDS Church standards." But he said he "would have liked to stay at KSL.
"I made the decisions I made for religious purposes, not career purposes," Kinard said. "A lot of people have made the kinds of mistakes I've made. Usually they lose their families and keep their jobs. I lost my job, but kept my family."
Kinard says his family has been "100 percent supportive."
"The first priority was maintaining and rebuilding the family."
Now, Kinard said, it may also be "time for me to re-establish myself professionally." He says he has "started to let people know that I'd like to do recording, narrations and voice-over work."
Kinard, 52, works as director of marketing for REDCON, Resource Data Consultants, in Bountiful. He took the job three months after resigning from KSL-TV.