
Atlanta-based ESPN sports reporter Erin Andrews said her life has been a “nightmare” since a peeping Tom secretly shot naked video of her in a hotel room, then posted it on the Web.
“I did nothing wrong,” she told Oprah Winfrey in a taped interview that aired today. She felt “victimized” again when the paparazzi hounded her after the videos leaked.
“It was horrifying reliving it,” she said. She was especially upset by media outlets showing clips or still frames from the videos.
“They were glorifying it,” she said. “There was no need to show those. I’m a crime victim.”
She didn’t know who the perpetrator was, and nobody has been arrested yet. She noted that there were at least two videos in two different hotels.
When a friend called her to tell her about the videos, she didn’t believe it because she knows she had never voluntarily been videotaped nude.
After seeing the videos, she first called her parents. She told them she felt her career was over. (That didn’t happen. She’s now back at work with ESPN.)
The videos quickly went viral and was seen countless millions of times. Even as Andrews’ lawyers tried to stop it, law enforcement told her there’s no way to completely eradicate them from the Web.
Andrews had not spoken publicly about the videos before the meeting with Oprah and has no plans to do so again.
“I didn’t even want to do an interview,” she told Oprah. “I just wanted to get back to work. I wanted to ignore it. But I feel there’s a responsibility. I have the power to share it with you. I want to set the record straight. But I’m not going away. I’m going back to work.”
Today, she said she feels paranoid and anxious, even in her own home or a hotel. “I always feel like I’m being videotaped,” she said.
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10 comments Add your comment
sg
September 11th, 2009
5:03 pm
its bad that happened to her but I am sick hearing about it.
AllBald
September 11th, 2009
5:14 pm
Thanks Erin for stepping up and taking the perpetrators on. Someone needs to call this wrong and offensive and you are doing the right thing. I hope you can identify those who did this and those who aided them in hiding. Take it to them and make them pay….that is the only way to stop this from happening again with you or others.
Andy Sutton (D - New York Islanders)
September 11th, 2009
5:29 pm
It’s nothing I haven’t seen already.
William Martin
September 11th, 2009
5:38 pm
This lady is a victim. How many of us know when we are being watched, taped,
stalked and such and don’t even know it. You go Erin, I’me in you corner!!!!
Matt C.
September 11th, 2009
5:49 pm
I’m really sorry this happened to Erin, but why was today’s Oprah dedicated to her when it was the 8th anniversary of 9/11/01? I’m farily certain that this could have been done on another day and that had Oprah brainstormed, she could have found a more relevant topic for today’s show. Granted, I didn’t watch so maybe she did something on it.
greg
September 11th, 2009
6:24 pm
who cares, 10 percent of atlanta is out of work and this fills the headlines
Dshep
September 11th, 2009
6:32 pm
bla bla bla
Chris
September 11th, 2009
6:34 pm
‘I didn’t even want to do an interview.’ ‘I wanted to ignore it’. But the opportunity to attract even more attention and do sexy photoshoots and promote myself was something else I had to consider.
Look, she was clearly violated. It was heinous but there’s a feel of hyposcrisy here.
JTesla
September 11th, 2009
6:37 pm
So is the statement “Andrews had not spoken publicly about the videos before the meeting with Oprah and has no plans to do so again.” being disputed? If so please provide evidence to that effect.
Ex-Northerner
September 11th, 2009
7:00 pm
I travel a lot so you can bet I’m packing a roll of masking tape. Every hotel room has a peep hole. I’m certainly not famous but you never know who is out there. Thanks, Erin, for giving us traveling women a heads-up. Beware of scumbags.