She's one of the most controversial figures in professional sports, and now TONYA HARDING talks to ET's JANN CARL in a no-holds-barred interview about her past, present and future.
"I think it's about time that people see who the real me is," the 35-year-old Tonya tells Jann. "It doesn't matter how many times life brings me down to rock bottom; I'm not going to give up on life. It's too precious."
Tonya looks very different these days compared to the lithe young woman with the skater's body. What happened? "I had the beginning of pneumonia and, along with my asthma, I was put on prednisone," explains Tonya. "Everyone knows when you're put on it, it makes you gain weight ... I was easily 35 pounds overweight, and now I'm like 15 to 20 overweight."
So, if "Celebrity Fit Club" called Tonya, would she do it? "Absolutely," she says with a smile.
An Oregon native whose figure skating prowess and triple axle put her on top of the skating world, it all came crashing down in 1994 when Tonya's ex-husband, JEFF GILLOOLY, attacked Tonya's teammate, NANCY KERRIGAN, at a practice session during the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Tonya was implicated in the conspiracy, although she avoided any jail time, and was banned from the world of professional skating.
"It's been a really long time since I've talked about it because I've gone on with my life," says Tonya. "[Nancy] was my friend; teammate. Yeah, we were competitors, but, hey, I'm very happy for her and all her successes in life. It's just a really unfortunate incident that happened and hopefully other people out there will learn from the mistakes that I've made and realize that they should go on with life. But think about your choices that you make in life, because if you get going down the wrong path, sometimes it's really hard to make it back on the right path."
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