Johnny Weir continues to open up about the end of his marriage, in an exclusive interview with Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush – and the figure skater claims he “lived under constant threat.”
“I was uncomfortable. I can’t say I was afraid every single day, but I was uncomfortable… it was a very threatening marriage. I lived under constant threat,” the 29-year-old told Billy after announcing that he was divorcing Victor Voronov after three years of marriage.
Weir claimed that Voronov attempted to extort him following their split.
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“We were told that if you don’t pay a lump sum of money to our team within 30 minutes, we will go public and start telling tales and I don’t negotiate like that,” Weir claimed. “I don’t think it’s the right way to be in a marriage or to end a marriage even, there shouldn’t be any war.”
One report claimed that Voronov’s camp asked for $25,000 in exchange for his silence. Voronov’s crisis manager, Wendy Feldman, told Access, “There was NO shakedown. That’s absolutely not true. There was a conversation when we were trying to settle, explaining we had been offered money to go public.”
Weir told Billy that he doesn’t feel as though he knows much about his husband’s past.
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“I know very little about Victor’s past because he is a very secretive person,” he explained. “I never pressed him on subjects that I thought would hurt him because I wanted him, through our marriage to grow and become stronger and to be comfortable with himself and be confident, and he’s very insecure.
“He has a long list of mistakes that he made before he married me,” Weir said. “They did all come out as soon as we got married.”
Despite allegations, Voronov’s camp also told Access that there is no truth to reports of him being a con artist.
“You thought you were marrying one person and it sounds like you actually married someone else,” Billy asked.
“I married a beautiful, lovely person and it is unfortunate that things changed,” Weir added.
— Jesse Spero
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