HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Fallen track star Marion Jones revealed she accepts responsibility and has no regrets in her first interview since being sentenced to six months in prison for lying about her steroid use and check fraud.
“I think that I absolutely should have to accept responsibility for breaking the law,” Jones says on Wednesday’s episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show. “I have no regrets for doing what I did on October the 5th and pleading guilty and admitting to the world that I lied, that I’ve made mistakes.”
After her admission in October, Jones was stripped of her Olympic medals. She says that was much easier to deal with than the pain of upsetting her loved ones.
“[It pales] in comparison to seeing my husband cry,” she tells Winfrey. “They [pale] in comparison to seeing my mother have to stand there in the courtroom and bawl. You know, those things to me are what mean the most.”
Easily the hardest family member to deal with is her 4-year-old son, says Jones, who admits she and her husband have yet to find the way to explain the situation to him.
“It’s a very sensitive topic, and we’re not dealing with a 15-year-old here who perceives things a different way,” she says. “We’re talking about a 4-year-old who was upset this morning that I couldn’t drop him off at school, you know? It’s going to be challenging.”
Jones admits to being disappointed having to serve time instead of just being on probation, but says, “I have to live with it. My family has to live with it.”
The 32-year-old Jones says that she’s received a big boost from her supporters, whose “prayers have really allowed me to get through it and be strong.”
“Everybody strays at some point in their life, and I strayed and I made mistakes and I am no different than anybody else except for the fact that you see me on the front page of the paper,” she says.
