Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, sweepstakes, and more!
Tonya Harding: Where Is She Now? 10 Things to Know About the I, Tonya Muse
Her dramatic skate through life didn't end with the Nancy Kerrigan attack — not by a long shot.
It's been more than two decades since Olympic silver medal ice skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed in the knee at the 1994 National Figure Skating Championships, an attack allegedly masterminded by the former husband of her competitor Tonya Harding and/or his friend Shawn Eckardt, but the story is back in headlines now thanks to a Golden Globe-winning movie, I, Tonya. Harding's dramatic skate through life didn't end with this fateful event — not by a long shot. Here are some of the more notable highlights since then from Harding, who is scheduled to perform on the ice at Rockefeller Center in New York City in late January.
1. She got married again - twice, actually
Her first marriage to Jeff Gillooly, who planned the attack on Kerrigan, ended in 1993. She married Michael Smith in 1995, divorced him a year later, and married her current husband Joe Price in 2010. Officially, she now goes by Tonya Price.
2. She had a singing career, which ended quickly
She put a singing group called the Golden Blades together, but it crashed quickly in a hail of boos and plastic bottles when they opened for Kool & the Gang in her hometown of Portland in 1995.
3. She helped save a woman's life
After Alice Olson, 81, collapsed in a Portland bar where Harding happened to be one night in 1996, Harding performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and called 911, helping to ensure she survived.
4. She (maybe) escaped a kidnapping
She claimed that she was abducted at knifepoint in Portland in 1997, and filed a police report the same day the National Figure Skating Championships kicked off in Nashville.
5. She appeared in Penthouse
Gillooly sold a sex tape of himself and Harding on their wedding night to Penthouse in 1994, stills of which ended up in the magazine.
6. She was arrested for domestic assault
Harding was arrested in Washington in 1998 for allegedly throwing a hubcap at her then-boyfriend, Darren Silver. Despite Silver writing the judge that he didn't want her to spend time behind bars, she spent three weeks in jail and 10 days on a work crew.
7. She became the muse for two operas, a Sufjan Stevens song, and a Weird Al song
Tonya and Nancy: The Opera opened in New York in 2010, while a separate production called Tonya and Nancy: The Rock Opera will perform shows this year in NYC, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Boston. Harding's story was also immortalized in a 1994 song and video by satirist "Weird Al" Yankovic called "Headline News." And crooner Sufjan Stevens released "Tonya Harding" the song in 2017.
8. She knocked people out in the boxing ring
An unexpected professional boxing career began with a 2002 "celebrity" match against Paula Jones, who sued former President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment, and continued with a few fights the next year. "I loved the redneck in her," boxing promoter Tony Holden, who worked with her, said in a 2017 interview with ESPN. "Oh, my God, it was funny. She just made you laugh. Whatever was on her mind, she was going to say it."
9. She became a mother
Son Gordon Price, 6, has given Tonya a new lease on life. “I had my son at 40, so the first half of my life I’m actually maybe getting a do-over, so that’s why I’m here,” she told PEOPLE this month. He's been skating with her once and is asking to practice more.
10. She opened up about what she knew
At least, that's what it sounds like she's admitting in a new two-hour special Truth and Lies: The Tonya Harding Story. She still denies being involved in planning the attack on Kerrigan, but now she's saying that she might have, kind of, sort of, overheard some stuff that she didn't think much of at the time: "I did, however, overhear them talking about stuff where, ‘Well, maybe we should take somebody out so we can make sure she gets on the team,’ and I remembered telling them, I go, ‘What the hell are you talking about? I can skate.'”
