In the movie I, Tonya, the film on the life of disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding, a shocking scene depicts a moment when Harding's mother threw a steak knife at her daughter, sticking in Harding's arm, during an argument. Now, in an interview with ABC News that aired Thursday, Harding's estranged mom, LaVona "Sandy" Golden, denies that incident ever happened and that much of the drinking and abuse linked to her in the film was exaggerated or a fabrication, USA Today reports. "I didn't abuse any of my children," Golden insists, though she does admit she "spanked [Tonya] once with a hairbrush at a competition," which was shown in the movie. "Spanked? Yes, [I] spanked. Absolutely, positively you [have] got to show them right from wrong." Golden is played in the film by Allison Janney, who won a Golden Globe for her performance.
In ABC's two-hour Truth and Lies: The Tonya Harding Story, Golden also refutes Harding's claim that Golden would bring her to the skating rink with a thermos filled with brandy and a dash of coffee; Golden says she added a bit of "brandy flavoring" to her java. As for the steak knife, which Harding says was hurled at her from about 10 feet away, Golden retorts: "Why would I throw a steak knife at anybody? She's lied so much she doesn't know what isn't a lie anymore." Golden doesn't have all bad things to say about her daughter. "Tonya was my little dynamo," she says. "I called her my little twinkle, my little star." That wistful nostalgia doesn't mean a reconciliation is likely. "I don't want her anywhere near me," Harding says. "I don't want her anywhere near my son. … She wants to make amends. She wants to meet and be part of the family. Hell no." Catch clips at ABC. (More Tonya Harding stories.)
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