January 09, 2018
Former Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding nearly cut short a British television interview after host Piers Morgan told her she was playing the victim in a situation in which the real victim was rival Nancy Kerrigan.
"Thank you so much. I appreciate being on your show, but I think I'm going to have to say have a good night," Harding said on Good Morning Britain.
When Morgan asked if Harding was going to end the interview because he referred to Kerrigan as the victim, Harding replied that Morgan hadn't let her finish.
"I think that many people are the victims of abuse every single day, and can't stand up for themselves," Harding said. "People need to be able to understand that we need to stand united, and that abuse should not be happening anymore."
Harding also denied having any knowledge that her ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, had hired a man to attack Kerrigan before the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Yet in an interview clip shown Tuesday morning on Good Morning America, she did say she overheard Gillooly and others "talking about stuff" a month or two before the attack.
"No," she told ABC News when asked if she participated in the planning process. "I did, however, overhear them talking about stuff where, 'Maybe we should take somebody out so we can make sure she gets on the team.' And I remember telling them, I go, 'What the hell are you talking about? I can skate.'
"This was like a month or two months before. But they were talking about skating, and, 'well maybe somebody should be taken out so then she can make it.'"
When asked if she recalled those previous conversations in the immediate aftermath of the attack, which prevented Kerrigan from competing in the 1994 championships, Harding said, "No, I didn't know what was going on."
Gillooly and Harding's bodyguard, Shawn Eckhardt, hired a man named Shane Stant to attack Kerrigan and keep her out of the Olympics. Stant clubbed Kerrigan's knee, keeping her out of the 1994 championships, but she was able to compete in the Olympics all the same, winning silver.
"It makes you cringe, hearing it," Harding told ABC News of the attack. "Because you know how much that it had to have hurt. And why someone would do this? What are they after? I was scared."
Harding eventually pleaded guilty to hindering the prosecution, a felony, and paid $160,000 in fines and served more than 400 hours of community service as a result. She was later stripped of the 1994 national title.
Harding also told ABC News that she is done apologizing.
"Enough apologizing," she said. "(Kerrigan's) got her life. I've got my life. We've both got wonderful lives, and that should be all that matters."