For years, Tonya Harding lived in relative obscurity. Her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly's 1994 planned assault of her rival Nancy Kerrigan is one of the biggest scandals in sports history. And so is Harding's guilty plea, in which she copped to "conspiring to hinder prosecution," a charge which came with three years probation and a $160,000 fine by the courts.
Following her probation, Harding had resigned herself to private life, occasionally serving as the answer to a trivia question or the subject of an ironic museum in Brooklyn.
That is until the film I, Tonya, which stars Margot Robbie and tells the story of the 1994 attack on Kerrigan from multiple perspectives, brought Harding, now 47 and living in Washington state, back into the spotlight. Here's what she's doing now:
Harding and her husband have one child.
Harding married her third husband, Joseph Jens Price, in 2010, and now goes by Tonya Price. Their son Gordon was born in 2011. She had married her first husband, Gillooly, when she was 19 years old and they divorced three years later. She was married to her second husband, Michael Smith, from 1994 to 1996.
At first, Harding was hesitant about the film, but overall she seems to like its portrayal of her life.
In a new interview with Robbie in the Hollywood Reporter, Harding revealed she initially wasn't interested in the film. "I was grateful that [screenwriter Steven Rogers] actually came to us first, but I wasn't going to do it. I was like, 'I don't want to go through this again. I've been through enough, and I have my son now,'" she revealed.
Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan skate during a practice session at the 1994 Winter Olympics.
Harding overcame her trepidation and came to appreciate the film and Robbie's work in it. "I was so nervous to watch it, but when I saw it, I wasn't watching a movie about me," says Harding. "I was watching Margot, and then I went, 'Oh my goodness. That's about me.'"
Screenwriter Steven Rogers told Deadline something similar. “[Tonya] said she laughed and she cried, and there were things she didn’t like, but she’s emailed me twice just to thank me, so I think she’s happy,” he said.
The film has been an unexpected success, earning Oscar nominations for film editing, Best Actress for Robbie, and Best Supporting Actress for Allison Janney, who play's Harding's mother LaVona Golden. On the red carpet at the 2018 Oscars, shortly before she won the Academy Award, Janney revealed that Harding herself has been her cheerleader during the awards show season.
"She's just been so supportive and loving of me," Janney told Yahoo news. "The first time I met her, she said, 'My god! You nailed my mother,' and I didn’t know what to say … so I just gave her a hug and I said, 'I'm so sorry you had that kind of an environment when you were growing up.'"
"[Tonya] is just a really lovely woman who seems to have found happiness and love," Janney continued. "She has a child that she loves and she's very sweet and supportive and she sends me texts to say, 'Go get 'em, girl!' and she's pretty great."
Watch the trailer for the film below:
Harding works primarily as a mother now.
"Do you have a job?" Robbie asked her point blank in the Hollywood Reporter interview, to which Harding responded, "I'm looking at it. You are my work. And I'm a mommy." Harding's statement included this footnote: "Per Harding's spokesperson, Harding was paid a fee plus a percentage of the film profits for her life rights. She also has been doing landscaping and deck-building work." The New York Times clarified that Harding was paid $1,500 initially for the life rights for the film with "more if the film actually got made and recouped its costs."
From 2003 to early 2004, Harding had a short stint as a professional boxer, but she eventually had to quit because of her asthma. In total, she had only three wins and three losses.
The Times profile also mentions that Harding previously worked as a welder and a hardware sales clerk at Sears.
She still skates.
During the conversation, Harding also shared that she takes to the ice "every week." "It makes me feel alive," she says. (Following Harding's guilty plea at age 24, she was banned for life from skating competitively in the States by the U.S. Figure Skating Association.)
Harding hasn't spoken with her mother since 2002.
Harding's mother LaVona Golden revealed to Inside Edition that the pair haven't seen each other, or even exchanged words, in 15 years. "She hates me. Period," Golden said in the 2017 interview. "I could never do anything right for her. Nothing."
"I’d love to be a part of the family," Golden continued, speaking about the grandson she has never met. "But I know she does not want this, so I don’t bother her."
Tonya Harding’s mother looks on while her daughter skates during a workout in January of 1994.
And as for the 1994 attack on Nancy Kerringan, Harding now says she "knew something was up."
Harding still denies any involvement in her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly's plan to injure Kerrigan, but in an ABC special called Truth and Lies: The Tonya Harding Story, she reveals that she did have an idea that he was plotting something.
“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 remember telling them, I go, ‘What the hell are you talking about? I can skate,’” she says in the program.
"This was, like, a month or two months before [the attack]," Harding continues. "But they were talking about skating and saying, 'Well, maybe somebody should be taken out so then, you know, she can make it.'"
Watch the trailer for that special below:
Caroline Hallemann
Digital Director
As the digital director for Town & Country, Caroline Hallemann covers culture, entertainment, and a range of other subjects
