Things got icy when former Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding appeared on Good Morning Britain via satellite on Tuesday, January 9.
The 47-year-old was on the show to promote her biopic, I, Tonya, which tells the story of how she was physically and emotionally abused by her mother. But Piers Morgan wanted to discuss the 1994 attack on her skating rival Nancy Kerrigan.
Harding was banned for life from the sport after her ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, and his co-conspirator, Shawn Eckhardt, hired a hitman to club Kerrigan in the knee with a crowbar after the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit, Michigan. Harding denied having any involvement, but pleaded guilty conspiring to hinder prosecution. She received three years probation, 500 hours of community service and a $160,000 fine.
“I respect you for trying to ask these questions. I’m here to talk about the future and what it means,” Harding told Morgan. “My movie is going to reach so many people to get them to ask for help . . . People who were also abused.”
Morgan, 52, wasn’t moved. “Maybe it suits you to play the victim,” he quipped. “But the victim was Nancy Kerrigan.”
At that point, a flustered Harding tried to end the interview. “Thank you so much but I think I’m going to have to say have a good night,” she said.
“You’re going?” Morgan replied. Harding then explained that he wasn’t letting her finish what she had to say about victims of abuse.
“Nancy Kerrigan was the victim, she was abused,” he responded. He then turned the conversation back to the 1994 attack.
“You did know what was happening, what they were planning to do, didn’t you?” he asked, to which Harding exclaimed that she did not.
“You didn’t have any knowledge at all, it was pure coincidence?” he pressed.
“No, I did not,” she snapped before ending the interview.
Harding joined the I, Tonya cast at Sunday’s Golden Globes. Allison Janney won for her portrayal of Hardings mother LaVona Golden.
