We’ve only heard about scandal prone former Olympic skater Tonya Harding a couple of times in the past few years, and I have to admit to being fascinated by her. Tonya is best known for allegedly having her ex husband cap rival skater Nancy Kerrigan in the knee in 1994, something Tonya denies having any prior knowledge of. She did a book tour in 2008 in which she claims that her ex husband, Jeff Gillooly, planned the attack without her knowledge and then raped her at gunpoint along with two other men to prevent her from going to the FBI to proclaim her innocence. Tonya has had multiple run-ins with the law in the past few years and spent a year touring as a professional women’s boxer from 2003-2004. I’m not sure what she’s done recently other than a 2009 interview with Real Sports, in which she got offended and defensive after President Obama used her name as a synonym for dirty tricks. That video is below and it’s super entertaining.
Anyway Tonya is pregnant with her first child at 40! I could have sworn she already had a bunch of children by different men, but apparently not.
The former figure skater, 40, is expecting her first child with husband Joseph Price, her attorney confirms to PEOPLE.
“Tonya is pregnant and very happily married,” Linda Lewis tells PEOPLE. “She wants her privacy, but she is very happy.”
The baby — reportedly a boy — is said to be due “any time,” notes the Portland Tribune.
Harding, who rose to prominence in 1991 after winning the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, became notorious in 1994 after her ex-husband and bodyguard hired another man to injure her competitor Nancy Kerrigan‘s leg, an attack which caused her to withdraw from the national championship that year.
She later pleaded guilty to hindering the prosecution after denying foreknowledge of the plot but admitting that she had not come forward once she found out. Harding, who was banned from amateur skating and completed probation, now lives in southwest Washington.
[From People]
Congratulations are in order I guess. From what I can find, Tonya hasn’t had any incidents with the law since 2007, so maybe she’s cleaned up and is ready to be a mom at this point. For all you can say about her, she hasn’t neglected any kids yet.
Tonya Harding is shown in 2007 in the header and in 2005 below. Credit: WENN.com
She’s on TruTV’s World’s Dumbest show.
She looks quite different. All I can say is I hope she’s a good mom and wish the best of luck to her child.
Who could forget? Wasn’t she a boxer at some point? Well, uh, good luck.
She is kind of funny on that show “World’s Dumbest Criminals ” show.
She actually made Nancy Kerrigan more interesting than she was. Kerrigan should thank her.
I love that interviewer: “You’re a piece of work.”
He obviously can’t stand her. And rightly so.
Ah, best of luck to her. That hair needs to go in the ‘White Trash Museum’ tho.
Yikes!! She has changed dramatically. This was the ice-skating chic, right?
Congrats and I hope she positively moved on with her life
My husband still enjoys bringing about the Nancy Kerrigan rant of “WHYYYYYYY? Whyyyyyyy? WHYYYYYYYY MEEEEEE? WHYYYY???”. That was really a bizarre episode in history- I kind of loved that her thug husband was named, “Gillooly”. Classic stuff.
WOW! What a transformation!
NEver liked her. Still dont.
Poor kid.
She wants her privacy? I doubt People just happened to find out Tonya was preggo and called her attorney for a quote. Tonya was all “yah, attention! Call the press!” I bet she’s hoping for a “second chance” type of baby cover.
I do find it funny that she has a lawyer on retainer and not a publicist.
She’s on one of those dumb criminal video shows on TruTV, I think.
She’s really icky.
Tonya Harding IS the White Trash Hall of Fame.
The years haven’t been good to her!
Hm, I never knew what to think about whether she helped planned the attack or no. She denied it pretty strenuously but I couldn’t figure out her husband’s motive for doing it on his own. I did think she was the better skater and could not stand Kerrigan but IF she did arrange the attack then being banned from skating etc., was her due dessert. As to the other stuff – the claims of rape by gunpoint. I’m inclined to believe her (even if I’m not sure as the timeline of that allegedly terrible incident) and think it’s a large part of why she’s been so messed up in the past.
Hope she’s got herself all straightened out now so as to be a good mommy to that little boy she and her husband are expecting.
I also vaguely remember her releasing a sex tape. I just googled it and, sure enough, it came up “10 celebrity sex tapes no one saw.” I’m sure the kid will be really proud of her; professional ice skater, turned amateur boxer, turned failed porn star. A real downward spiral into obscurity. Announcing the pregnancy is just another pathetic grab for attention.
Okay, now this is a scary thought. G-d help that child. I call bullshit on her not having anything to do with the Kerrigan attack. Her ex husband did it for her, by her urging. I have no doubt in my mind about it.
What transformation? She STILL has that busted, bad ’90s “perm and bangs” hair.
That poor kid!!
I, too, fully believe she planned (her ex was to damn stupid) and instigated the attack on Kerrigan. It was definitely interesting – the “skating princess” vs. “the trailer-park girl”…and I agree with I Choose Me, I think Harding WAS the better skater but acknowledged that Kerrigan had the skating-world fans behind her because she was “the pretty one”.
I think Harding felt that the ONLY way she’d have a chance over Kerrigan would be to sabotage her. It’s too bad, because the whole thing wound up ruining her skating career when, if she had just skated, she might have beaten Kerrigan and had a long career on the ice.
I live right smack in the middle of Tonya Territory, and she and her family are well-known in my neighborhood. Not to defend any of her actions, but her mother was abusive and an alcoholic or drug user, and Tonya was abused by family members.
Although I think she definitely knew about the planned attack on Nancy Kerrigan, Jeff Gillooly was the instigator because he saw Tonya as his meal ticket. Tonya just wanted to win an Olympic medal. This was a tragic waste of real talent that might have been her way out of her poor, rough beginnings. I wish her well, she’s had a tough life.
Bangs trauma.
As a skating fan, I’ve always felt bad for her. I don’t really know whether or not she planned the attack–part of me thinks she thought she was too good to worry about Nancy–but I wish her well now. She’s had a hard life and damn it, on their best days, she was the best skater of the two, hands down. Unfortunately, Tonya didn’t always have a “best” day because she couldn’t get there and stay there mentally.
Oh, Tonya Harding is a classic trailer trash gone famous gone criminal story! Who can forget her broken lace (later famously recreated in a Seinfeld episode) or the fact that she threw hubcaps at her hubby! But congrats to her on the baby, somehow I thought she wasn’t all that bad, just a product of her upbringing.
Honestly, she is a mess. How can she STILL have the same hair???
HER BANGS GOT STUCK IN 1994.
@ gloaming: That’s exactly what I was thinking.
@ Minx:”she wasn’t all that bad, just a product of her upbringing.”
Plenty of people have the same kind of upbringing and are able to rise above it.
Now THAT is some bangs trauma! Yikes!
I, too, was fascinated by the whole TH/NK drama. It was such a circus! She really was a the better skater & its a shame how things turned out, whether she was in the know or not. I hope she is in a good place now!
She lives in Vancouver!? Holy Crap! That is so damn funny! In case you don’t know Portlanders call it Vantucky. It’s pretty redneck. Its also f’n perfect!
LMAO!
devilgirl: “She actually made Nancy Kerrigan more interesting than she was. Kerrigan should thank her. ”
_____________
Right you are. Except little miss “Why-me-why-anyone” was sleeping with her married coach since she was a teenager. He left his family for her. Then her brother later killed her father. So there’s a lot more drama to Nancy Kerrigan’s life than Tonya Harding’s.
Figure skating is supposed to be an elegant sport (if it is a sport, which I question sometimes) and Harding has about as much elegance and class as a street hooker, but she was definitely a better skater than Kerrigan. She was more athletic and performed more difficult moves. But the public preferred Kerrigan in her $13,000 Vera Wang outfits to Harding in her trashy dresses. If Harding was behind the attack on Kerrigan, which I think is more than likely, then being banned from competition is what she deserved. However, I couldn’t stand Kerrigan anyway with her whiny ice-princess attitude, so I was very glad when the gold medal she thought was hers by divine right went instead to Oksana Baiul.
Is this Amy Adams’ long lost sister or something? They look alot alike.
Yeesh, she looks like she’s had a rough life.
Ew.
If she had killed Nancy Kerrigan it would have been less of a crime than that ratty mid west 80’s hair. Why do some women still do this?? WHY???
That kids,
that right there – that’s why you don’t do drugs.
Poor Tanya. Abusive childhood, untreated mental illness, one failure after another. Life has not been kind to her, and you can see it all over her face.
I hope she gets it together for her kid.
OMFG she looks bad! Talk about karma… although she still has the icy eyes and shit eating grin, and just as much class as ever.
What sort of twisted mind looks at this woman and says, “Yes, I want her to be the mother of my child”??
Good call on the Amy Adams resemblance Lexirei!
Holy weight gain, batgirl!
Did she eat Nancy Kerrigan as her final revenge?
Those nails! That hair!
I always preferred Nancy. But I was like 5 years old so I really can’t recall who the better skater was. Everyone seems to think Harding was so I’ll go with that.
i didn’t realize crispy hair was in fashion again. she looks like a duggar, and that is not a compliment.
That’s not Tanya Harding. Isn’t that Tina Yothers from Family Ties?
This lady has been abused from the beginning. Can we please just give her a break for once?