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Has Tonya Harding been skating around the facts all these years?
Judge for yourself on Jan 11, when ABC airs “Truth and Lies: The Tonya Harding Story” at 9 p.m.
The disgraced former figure skater sat down for a two-hour interview with ABC News’ “Truth and Lies” docu-series to look back at the scandal that tarnished her career.
Harding, a two-time Olympian, pleaded guilty in 1994 to conspiring to hinder prosecution of the attackers who struck her rival Nancy Kerrigan in the leg with a baton ahead of the winter Olympics in Norway.
In a preview for the special, Harding, now 47, maintains her innocence, though she notes that many people still believe to this day that she personally hit her competitor in the leg. Her ex-husband and bodyguard had actually hired a man to do the deed.
Harding blames the media for marking her as a villain, telling interviewer Amy Robach she felt as though she was “convicted” in the court of public opinion long before the facts about the kneecapping of Kerrigan ever came to light.
“The media had me convicted of doing something wrong before I had even done anything at all. I’m always the bad person,” she complains.
“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.”
Harding says she survived the scandal by relying on “faith” in herself and in her father to push herself to “be something worth being proud of.”
“I always wanted my daddy to be proud and now I want my son to be proud,” she says through tears.
The special will feature interviews with stars of the recently released film “I, Tonya,” including Margot Robbie, Allison Janney and Sebastian Stan, as well as Connie Chung; USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan; Harding’s excoach Dody Teachman and others.