Remaining resilient. Tonya Harding opened up about her feud with Nancy Kerrigan in a new interview and revealed that she still cares about how the public perceives her.
Harding, whose ex-husband and bodyguard hired a man to hit her main competitor, Kerrigan, in the knee before the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway, spoke candidly about her reputation in a two-hour special with ABC News’ Amy Robach for the network’s Truth and Lies docu-series.
The disgraced Olympian, 47, whose story is shared in Margot Robbie’s new film I, Tonya, is upset that many people believe she was the one to strike Kerrigan. “The media had me convicted of doing something wrong before I had even done anything at all,” she told Robach, 44. “I’m always the bad person.”
Harding believes that the hardship she faces may be a test of faith. “Is it a challenge from the Lord to see how far I can be pushed until I break and become nothing? You can’t push me that far anymore, because I’ve been nothing and I’ve been nothing several times,” she continued, noting that her desire to make her family proud has kept her going. “But it’s my faith in myself and in my father that comes back to me and makes me get back up off my butt and be something worth being proud of. I always wanted my daddy to be proud. And now, I want my son to be proud.”
As previously reported, a source exclusively told Us that Kerrigan, 48, has yet to see the biopic. Meanwhile, Harding has given the movie her seal of approval. “She watched the film,” director Craig Gillespie exclusively told Us Weekly in November. “I’m sure it’s hard to be objective when looking at one’s own life, but I am told she is happy with it.”
Truth and Lies: The Tonya Harding Story airs on ABC Thursday, January 11, at 9 p.m. ET. I, Tonya is now in theaters.
