When Tonya Harding‘s father passed away nearly a decade ago, she said goodbye to both a dear family member and her best friend.
“I lost my dad nine years ago,” Harding, 47, said on Monday’s episode of Dancing with the Stars: Athletes. “When I lost my dad, I lost my very best friend. I was definitely daddy’s little girl.”
During the semifinals episode of the reality dance competition, each of the six remaining contestants were asked to share about the most valuable person in their life. For the former figure-skating Olympian, that person was her late father, Al Harding.
“I mean, my dad just gave me 100 percent unconditional love. When I was young, my dad had to leave — he never abandoned me. We talked every single day. My dad would come to my competitions. He was always there for me. He loved his little girl. And I love him,” she shared.
Although Harding has long had a strained relationship with her allegedly abusive mother, LaVona Golden — which was portrayed in the Oscar-nominated film I, Tonya — she credited her dad for always being supportive, even at the height of her controversy.
At the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 1994 — just one month before the Winter Olympics — champion American skater Nancy Kerrigan was brutally clubbed in the knee, leaving her unable to compete.
It was later revealed that the ex-husband and bodyguard of fellow skater Harding worked together to hire someone to attack rival skater Kerrigan. Though Harding long disputed her involvement, she was eventually convicted of hindering the investigation into…
