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INSIDE EDITION SPEAKS WITH MARK KERRIGANS EX-WIFE, WHO TALKS OF MARKS VIOLENT TEMPER AND HIS JEALOUSY OF NANCY

To be broadcast Thursday, January 28, 2010  

New York, NY - January 28, 2010 - INSIDE EDITION speaks with Janet Kerrigan about the bad blood between figure skating legend Nancy Kerrigan and her wayward brother Mark.  Janet Kerrigan is Mark's ex-wife and she says the tragedy that has struck the Kerrigan family is no shock to her.  Nancy Kerrigan's father died after a struggle with his son, Mark.

She tells INSIDE EDITION that Mark was jealous of his sister, Nancy.

Janet Kerrigan: "You knew there was tension.  You knew there was a lot of jealousy."

Janet tells INSIDE EDITION that Mark used to aspire to play professional hockey, but that his parents couldn't afford his hockey because they were paying for Nancy's skating.

Janet Kerrigan: "I'd have to say he was proud and jealous at the same time...He never really spoke ill of her.  I mean, he would just say, ‘Oh, it's always Nancy, Nancy, Nancy.'  When there was a family function there was always an edge.  There was always a tiff."

Janet Kerrigan says that Mark had a temper and he was sometimes abusive.

Janet Kerrigan: "It was a constant battle to keep him calm...He strangled me in the bedroom.  I couldn't get out, so what I did was I jumped out the window of the bedroom, and I called my daughter and her boyfriend had to come pick me up." 

Janet Kerrigan: "When Mark used to beat me up the cops would come to the house and they would take him away, and they would call Danny Kerrigan and tell him.  Not once did they ever call me and say, ‘Are you ok? Is there anything we can do?'" 

Janet Kerrigan says she feared for her life everyday and when she reached out to the Kerrigans for help, she did not receive any and was called a liar.

Reports say that Mark Kerrigan, who pled not guilty to assault on his father, had his hands on his father's neck in a violent struggle over use of the phone.  Janet Kerrigan tells INSIDE EDITION she believes he is capable of doing that.

Janet Kerrigan: "Yes, he did it to me.  He loves to use the phone when he gets drunk. "

And she says that if his father would not let him use the phone, "then he gets very violent."

 

INSIDE EDITION is produced daily at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City and produced and distributed by CBS Television Distribution, a unit of CBS Corp.

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