Johnny Weir's split from husband Victor Voronov could get very messy, very quickly. Speaking with Access Hollywood's Billy Bush on Thursday, March 20, the famed figure skater called his marriage to the Russian lawyer "threatening" and said their fights had occasionally gotten "physical."
"It wasn't often, but…we're boys, boys fight, boys wrestle boys," Weir, 29, told Bush. "It was usually good humored wrestling, but a few times, of course, it did get physical and…some of my closest friends have seen him hit me before."
Which is not to say Weir didn't fight back. In fact, he and his estranged husband — whom he married in New York City in 2011 — were involved in a domestic violence incident prior to Weir's trip to Sochi, Russia, for the Winter Olympics, and Weir was arrested for allegedly biting his spouse.
"I was defending myself on that night…you would never see a mark on my body, but the damage that was done to me mentally was crippling," he said. He went on to claim that Voronov was "very drunk" and "yelling" about "some financial messiness" that Weir's mom was helping to clean up.
"We had a fight, and then I went to sleep because I had to work the next day, and he came in — not very himself — and asked me to lay with him in the biblical sense, and when I refused, the altercation between us started," the three-time U.S. national champion told Bush.
"We were fighting in such a terrible way, and it did get physical on that night, and it's unfortunate that things went the way that it did, because domestic violence is never the way to go," he said. "Domestic violence is never the answer, and when it's two men, things are different."
Voronov's rep confirmed to Access Hollywood that there was an incident and that Weir was arrested, but said "that case was dropped by Victor at the urging of Johnny prior to the Olympics. The person who bit someone was Johnny."
One point of contention for the couple, Weir claimed, was his career as a figure skating commentator. "He was not super accepting of the fact that I work and I have to work this week in Russia, this week in Los Angeles, next week in Tokyo…" the athlete said, noting that Voronov did not work while they were together.
A rep for Weir's soon-to-be ex-husband, meanwhile, told Access Hollywood that Voronov "willfully gave up his career [as a lawyer] at the request of Johnny to devote himself to Johnny as a traditional spouse often does." He also said the split had been difficult on his client: "It is our extreme hope and desire that this divorce could have been handled amicably. Not only is Victor heartbroken but he is now humiliated."
