Harding tells harrowing story in new book

NEW YORK -- The memories are painful for Tonya Harding, and somehow liberating.

They fill a new book, “The Tonya Tapes,� in which she speaks frankly, if a bit confusingly, about the Tonya and Nancy scandal. She writes about being abused as a child, contemplating suicide, having a gun placed to her head and being raped. She says she paid a price for not fitting the mold of American figure skaters.

The book is a compilation of interviews with author Lynda D. Prouse conducted over eight years.

“So many people do not have a voice and they should be heard,� Harding told The Associated Press during an interview on Thursday. “I wanted people to see me and know me and I wanted to help other people not go through the things I’ve gone through.�

What the 37-year-old Harding says she has gone through could fill a year’s worth of soap operas. Long before she was a national champion (1991) and two-time Olympian, she says she was molested as a child, looked down upon by skating federations and led astray through bad relationships. She admits to “not being real educated� and “naive� in her dealings with people.

“Being afraid to open up and talk to someone is really difficult,� she said. “That was another reason I wanted to finish the book, to get rid of my past, dealing with everything, the ups and downs, for a fresh start in the future.

“Life is a roller coaster, and sometimes they throw in a loop-de-loop,� she said. “You have to hang on.�

In 1994, Harding’s then-husband Jeff Gillooly helped plan an assault on Nancy Kerrigan that triggered a melodrama complete with headlines and huge television ratings at the Lillehammer Olympics. Since then, Harding has been characterized as a villain. She sees herself as a victim.

In the book, Harding accuses Gillooly and his accomplices of threatening her life:

“Jeff and two other guys -- don’t know who they were because I couldn’t see who they were -- they were in a different car -- decided to drive me up to the mountains, put a gun to my head, and take themselves upon me . . . They told me this is what you are going to say. This is what you are going to do, and if you don’t you’re not going to be here anymore.�

Harding didn’t pursue rape charges, saying she was afraid to do so. Several attempts by the AP to contact Gillooly (now named Jeff Stone) by telephone were unsuccessful.