Tonya Harding is back in the spotlight, and she’s reclaiming her narrative.
With the release of Margot Robbie’s new movie I, Tonya, ABC is feeding Americans’ renewed interest Harding’s story with a two-hour special Truth and Lies: The Tonya Harding Story, which will air on Jan. 11.
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Harding famously was banned from competitive skating after the 1994 Winter Olympics scandal in which a man hired by Harding’s abusive ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and her bodyguard Shawn Eckardt kneecapped skating sweetheart Nancy Kerrigan.
In a clip from the upcoming ABC special, Harding talks about how even 23 years later, people still think she carried out the attack on Kerrigan herself.
“The media had me convicted of doing something wrong before I had even done anything at all,” Harding, 47, says. “I’m always the bad person. 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 continues: “But it’s my faith in myself and in my father that comes back to me and makes me get back up off my back, and be something worth being proud of. I always wanted my daddy to be proud, and now I want my son to be proud.”
The special also features rare childhood videos of Harding, interviews with Robbie, I, Tonya co-stars Allison Janney and Sebastian Stan; news anchor Connie Chung, USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan; Harding’s former coach Dody Teachman; Norman Fink, the former district attorney who prosecuted Harding and Gillooly; PEOPLE‘s Kate Coyne; and others.
Truth and Lies: The Tonya Harding Story airs Jan. 11 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
Photo credit: ABC