Kristen Hentschel: ABC producer was paid thousands of dollars to perform ‘hit job’ interviews

A Good Morning America producer, who was previously most known for her affair with To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen, used her title to gain access to politicians who were opposed to the interests of a major political consulting firm she was also employed by. 

A bombshell report from NPR and Floodlight says that Kristen Hentschel, who formerly went by the name Kristyn Caddell, had on least three occasions attempted to ‘trip up Florida politicians whose stances on environmental regulations cut against the interests’ of clients of Matrix LLC.

More recently, Matrix has been accused of running surveillance operations against journalists and environmental activists.

A spokesperson for ABC told NPR: ‘If she was working on these stories, she was not authorized to cover them for ABC News.’ It’s not clear if Hentschel is still employed by ABC. 

Hentschel is accused of at least four different acts of political espionage while on the payroll of Matrix. 

In one instance, she confronted a Florida State Rep and alleged that a construction project that he was involved in of being responsible for deaths of endangered tortoises, which was false. 

Hentschel is also accused of smearing a South Florida mayor by saying that a previously settled lawsuit involving the mayor’s daughter and a friend was about to come under renewed spotlight. 

On another occasion, Hentschel door stepped a Florida Republican Congressman, telling his wife and she was from ABC News, and wanting to question him about crude jokes he had made on Facebook years earlier.

In another bizarre act, Hentschel, who is based in Florida, hired an Atlanta-area personal trainer and befriended her. The trainer was the ex-girlfriend of the CEO of a company that was a rival to her clients. It was later reported that the trainer and her ex-boyfriend had been the victims of spying. 

DailyMail.com has reached out to ABC to confirm whether she is still employed by the network

A spokesperson for ABC told NPR: ‘If she was working on these stories, she was not authorized to cover them for ABC News’

Hentschel said following her affair with Hansen: ‘I don’t wish any harm on Chris, yet our affair has essentially destroyed my professional career’

According to her LinkedIn page, Hentschel was a field reporter on OJ Simpson’s robbery trial in 2009, President Barack Obama’s 2008 inauguration and on ‘numerous tropical storms and hurricanes.’

She also says on that profile that she received the Edward R. Murrow Award for breaking news coverage. Hentschel is a graduate of Palm Beach Atlantic University where she majored in communication and media studies.

Her 2014 report on a woman who committed a murder suicide by driving her children into the sea titled: Mom Drives Kids into Ocean, was nominated for a local Emmy. 

During her time working with NBC in 2011, Hentschel, then going by Caddell, then 32, had a four month long affair with To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen, then 54. 

According to her LinkedIn page, Hentschel was a field reporter on OJ Simpson’s robbery trial in 2009, President Barack Obama’s 2008 inauguration and on ‘numerous tropical storms and hurricanes’

Prior to the recent scandal, Hentschel was best known for her affair with To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen, pictured here in October 2011

She wrote in a letter to the National Enquirer that Hansen had fooled her into believing that his marriage was ‘filled with misery and on the verge of disarray.’ She added: ‘Chris told me a divorce was inevitable and the wedding ring on his finger was all but for show.’

Hentschel continued: ‘Chris was flying me all over the country; putting us up in the finest hotels; having dinner and mingling with many of his colleagues; having our photographs taken together in public places; he would even speak with my family on the phone.’

It was later revealed that Hansen had no plans to leave his wife, Mary, and only told her about the affair shortly before the story was revealed by the Enquirer. 

The producer also said: ‘I don’t wish any harm on Chris, yet our affair has essentially destroyed my professional career.’ 

Hentschel had introduced herself to Hansen in the VIP area at the Blue Martini Lounge in Palm Beach in March 2011. After news of the affair broke, Hentschel did not work in TV again until 2014 when she was hired by WPTV in Orlando. 

Among the victims of Hentschel’s hit-jobs was Florida Republican Toby Overdorf who was asked about fictional dead tortoises in this interview

The former CEO of Matrix, Jeff Pitts, who allegedly had an affair with Hentschel shortly after she began working with the firm

At the time she was hired by the station, Hentschel told Radar Online: ‘No matter what your philosophy is on someone who has an affair, if it was the man or the woman’s fault, there are two people involved and if I can’t work, he should not be able to work.’

She added: ‘I have lived the double standard… a double standard is an understatement as to what happens in this industry. The women get fired and the men keep going.’ 

The NPR report says that during one election cycle Hentschel was paid around $7,000 for work done for Florida Crystals, a sugar company, and Florida Power & Light. Her payments were labeled with the name of the company’s who benefited from her political sabotage. 

Florida Crystals and FPL ‘could have benefited’ from Hentschel’s work in undermining Toby Overdorf, a candidate for Florida’s House of Representatives. 

Overdorf was attempting to introduce more solar paneling to his constituency while also battling water pollution, something that the sugar industry had been guilty of perpetrating in the past. 

Prior to a debate, Hentschell asked Overdorf on camera about 20 dead gopher tortoises, which are endangered, being found at a construction site where he was a consultant. A subsequent investigation found that there were no dead tortoises.

Overdorf told NPR: ‘It was an attack ad against my livelihood, my family. And it was something that potentially could last far beyond my time running for office.’ Despite the hit-job, Overdorf won his election.

While a lawyer for Florida Crystals said the conglomerate was ‘not involved in any way, nor was anyone acting on its behalf, in any negative attacks in any form, directly or indirectly.’

Hentschel says on her LinkedIn profile that she received the Edward R. Murrow Award for breaking news coverage. Hentschel is a graduate of Palm Beach Atlantic University where she majored in communication and media studies

Hentschel said in a 2018 interview: ‘A lot of people think that the teleivions business… looks Hollywood-esque. I made $8 an hour at my first job, laid on couches and had to move around literally every one to two years’

Since 2016, Hentschel, a registered Republican, has been paid $15,000 from Matrix. She was hired by the firm’s former CEO Jeff Pitts. Matrix founder Joe Perkins described Perkins as a ‘rogue employee,’ according to NPR.

The report goes on to say that shortly after Hentschel began at the company, she and Pitts began an affair with him living close to the producer in West Palm Beach.  

Hentschel told Baldwin Park Living, a Florida magazine: ‘A lot of people think that the teleivions business… looks Hollywood-esque. I made $8 an hour at my first job, laid on couches and had to move around literally every one to two years.’ 

In that same piece, Hentschel promotes her business, I Make Videos, a company that makes promotional clips for various companies.   

Hentschel is accused of identifying herself as representing ABC News as she contacted then Mayor of South Miami Phil Stoddard. 

Stoddard had been a vocal opponent of Florida Power & Light. Hentschel told Stoddard about an upcoming press conference that was going to draw attention to a previously settled lawsuit involving the mayor and the family of a teenage boy who had been hospitalized after attending a party thrown by his teenage daughter.

Hentschel was paid $2,000 for her efforts. The Orlando Sentinel reports that Matrix spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in attempts to remove Stoddard from office.

In one act of political espionage, Hentschel befriended personal trainer Kim Tanaka, shown here, due to her relationship with the CEO of a company that was at odds with her clients

While in 2021, Hentschel hired Atlanta-based personal trainer Kim Tanaka, despite not living in Georgia. Tanaka formerly dated the CEO of Southern Company, Tom Fanning, a competitor to FPL. 

AL.com had previously reported that Tanaka and Fanning were being spied on by investigators working for Matrix. 

Despite Hentschel’s connection to a possible spy operation, Tanaka told NPR that the pair are still friends. 

In 2020, Hentschel represented herself as an ABC News correspondent when she tried to ask Rep. Brian Mast about rape jokes he made on Facebook years previously. 

Mast’s team later confirmed with ABC that Hentschel was not there on official business. 

According to Mast, a conservative Republican, Hentschel showed up at his family home to ask the questions. Mast is at odds with several Florida companies of their need to keep Lake Okeechobee artificially full for various industries. 

He told NPR: ‘They’ll do anything that they can to hold on to that grip of controlling water in the state of Florida. And I’m probably the number one person that goes against them.’