Two years after the infamous peephole video, ESPN reporter Erin Andrews still can’t escape it – even though she put her stalker behind bars. As Andrews gears up for college football season, and her increased media presence that always accompanies it, she sat down with Marie Claire to discuss the public and private battles she’s still waging. Below you will find an excerpt from the story, “The Haunting of Erin Andrews,” which appears in the August issue of the magazine as well as the magazine cover image.
You can read the entire story here
How did you cope psychologically with the knowledge that strangers would be seeing you in the nude?
That was the hardest thing. Despite what I do for a living, I am very insecure about my body. I don’t have a complex, but for every woman — I don’t care who you are — there’s a part of your body you have issues with. It was my body, and I didn’t have a choice of how many people got to see it. What people don’t understand is that while I wasn’t physically touched, I was violated.
The day that I got the phone call that this was on the Internet, I didn’t want to get undressed. I didn’t change my clothes for two or three days. I was so screwed up. I was disgusted with myself; I was disgusted with my body, with being naked, and that everybody saw that it was me. I stopped going to my gym for six or seven months because I was afraid of people seeing me working out. I had this mind-set of, “Oh, my gosh, everybody’s seen me naked and they’re going to think to themselves, She should be so embarrassed.”
The first site to run the video was in Europe. Then a sports blog linked to it — and rumors spread that you might have been behind the whole thing.
Yes, the perception right away was: She’s doing this as a sex tape. She’s doing this for publicity. News sites claimed they showed the video because it was “news.” These news outlets were having so much fun with it. The New York Post put the images from the video up on the front page. The Early Showplayed clips on their show. Fox News showed stills. It was disgusting. My poor dad was watching this. He had to go on medication, he was so upset watching what was happening to his daughter.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports You can follow him on Twitter
Follow paulmbanksThe post Erin Andrews Gives CANDID Interview in August Marie Claire Magazine appeared first on The Sports Bank.Net.