A three-time U.S. Olympian runner who has admitted her double life as a prostitute is taking an apology lap on Twitter, promising to “make amends” and return to being a good mother.
Suzy Favor Hamilton, a 44-year-old nine-time NCAA champion, admitted to The Smoking Gun that she worked as a $600 per hour call girl for a Las Vegas escort agency since last December, booking dozens of dates in Sin City and other major cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston. In a series of posts on Thursday, Hamilton took to Twitter to begin resurrecting her life.
“I cannot emphasize enough how sorry I am to anyone I have hurt as a result of my actions and greatly appreciate the support from family and those closest to me,” Favor Hamilton wrote. “I fully intend to make amends and get back to being a good mother, wife, daughter, and friend.”
The married mother of a 7-year-old girl indicated she has been seeing a psychologist for the past few weeks and will continue doing so.
“I do not expect people to understand, but the reasons for doing this made sense to me at the time and were very much related to depression,” Favor Hamilton wrote. “As crazy as I know it seems, I never thought I would be exposed, therefore never hurting anybody.”
Favor Hamilton said she was drawn to escorting in large part because it provided “many coping mechanisms” during a challenging time in her life and marriage.
“It provided an escape from a life that I was struggling in,” Favor Hamilton wrote to nearly 4,000 followers. “It was a double life.”
Favor Hamilton’s sordid past has already sullied her future, as Disney canceled a scheduled appearance at an August 2013 expo during the Disneyland Half Marathon weekend.
Bob Hitchcock, a spokesman for runDisney, which organizes the company’s races, told the Orange County Register that Hamilton is no longer scheduled for future Disney events. She previously spoke at and led a dance at an August meet-up at Disneyland Half Marathon events in Anaheim. In February, Favor Hamilton appeared at a Princess Half Marathon event at Florida’s Walt Disney World, the newspaper reported.
Favor Hamilton, who used the alias “Kelly Lundy” during her trysts, shared her true identity with several male clients. The decorated competitive runner has characterized the escort business as “exciting” and a diversion from her Wisconsin real estate brokerage with her 44-year-old husband, Mark, who is aware of her illicit business.
“He tried, he tried to get me to stop,” she told The Smoking Gun. “He wasn’t supportive of this at all.”
As a nine-time NCAA champion for Wisconsin, Favor Hamilton is the namesake of the Big Ten Conference’s Suzy Favor Athlete of the Year Award. Big Ten spokesman Scott Chipman told the Associated Press the conference had no comment.
Las Vegas police have no record of any arrests or contact with Favor Hamilton, said Officer Laura Meltzer, a department spokeswoman. No inquiry about Favor Hamilton was launched as a result of the news reports, Meltzer said.
Favor Hamilton could not be reached for comment early Friday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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