Mckayla Maroney Defends Britney Spears Slams Media In New Instagram

RELATED: See These Olympic Gymnasts’ New Uniform, a Protest Against Sexualization. On July 26, Maroney, now 25 years old, spoke out about her abuse at the hands of Nassar on Instagram, three years after she first came forward. “From my experience, speaking up about abuse is extremely exhausting physically, mentally, and emotionally,” the Olympic gymnast wrote on Instagram. She went on to discuss the role the media has played in her life since. After coming forward about her abuse during an interview with Today in 2018, Maroney said, “I hated the depressing tone my life took on, and how the media portrayed me.” She added that she “never wanted to be seen as a victim” but just wanted Nassar in jail and the people who allowed the abuse to go on to be held accountable for their actions. Maroney’s statement comes as the women’s gymnastics team competes at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and as the world and legal system continues to reassess Spears’ conservatorship, which has had her father and other appointed figures in control of her financially and physically for years. In the post, Maroney reflects on the commonalities between her and Spears’ experiences, and she sports a Spears’ shirt in the accompanying photos. “Britney’s story resonates with me so much because just like Britney, I also had to ‘fake it till you make it’ to survive my 2012 Olympics,” Maroney revealed. Maroney explained that the Framing Britney Spears documentary, which brought the issues with Spears’ conservatorship to light in early 2021, shows that “the media is hugely to blame” for her suffering. “To this day, media bullies celebrities and athletes with dramatic clickbait stories and false reports for their benefit. Not caring at all how it affects the person or family’s life,” wrote Maroney. She added that “it’s time to hold the media accountable for the damage they create.” RELATED: This Diane Sawyer Interview With Britney Spears Has People Outraged. Like Spears, Maroney wrote that at the 2012 Olympics, she was “was just trying to accomplish [her] dream, but,” she added: “I had abuse coming at me from many angles that I didn’t understand how to process at 15. I had to suppress it, and I had to minimize it, just to get through the day.” In 2018, when she first talked about the abuse, Maroney said Nassar began abusing her at the age of 13 and hundreds of times following that. Later that year, Maroney, along with more than 150 other victims, wrote impact statements that were read to him before he was sentenced. “It happened in London before my team and I won the gold medal, and it happened before I won my silver medal,” Maroney wrote in her statement. She also described one especially traumatizing moment for her. “For me, the scariest night of my life happened when I was 15 years old. I had flown all day and night with the team to get to Tokyo. He’d given me a sleeping pill for the flight, and the next thing I know, I was all alone with him in his hotel room getting a ’treatment.’ I thought I was going to die that night,” wrote Maroney. RELATED: For more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter. In her Instagram post, Maroney expressed that she felt acknowledging and discussing this darker part of her life veered from her usual character. “If you know me or have been following me, you probably have picked up that I’m naturally just a positive, bubbly person, who leans more towards optimism and having faith because that’s what makes me happy,” wrote Maroney. “So calling out abusers, and dwelling on all the dark negative pieces of my past felt extremely wrong for me.“ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb Maroney added that although she wanted to “move on” and return to being her usual self, she knew she had to push herself to speak out against Nassar. “I needed to learn the power of my voice, boundaries, and when to be resilient,” she wrote. The former gymnast also commended Spears for speaking out. “She deserves to spend the rest of her life healing in peace or doing whatever she wants,” Maroney wrote on Instagram. She then drew a comparison between the people controlling Spears’ life and those whole allowed abuse within elite gymnastics to persist. “The people who control her are criminals, and abusers, just like USA gymnastics, and the USOC [United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee] used me and their athletes for money but didn’t care to protect us,” she concluded, adding the hashtag #FreeBritney. RELATED: Women Athletes Are Calling Out the Olympics for Forcing Them to Do This.

title: “Mckayla Maroney Defends Britney Spears Slams Media In New Instagram” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-19” author: “Leslie Simon”

RELATED: See These Olympic Gymnasts’ New Uniform, a Protest Against Sexualization. On July 26, Maroney, now 25 years old, spoke out about her abuse at the hands of Nassar on Instagram, three years after she first came forward. “From my experience, speaking up about abuse is extremely exhausting physically, mentally, and emotionally,” the Olympic gymnast wrote on Instagram. She went on to discuss the role the media has played in her life since. After coming forward about her abuse during an interview with Today in 2018, Maroney said, “I hated the depressing tone my life took on, and how the media portrayed me.” She added that she “never wanted to be seen as a victim” but just wanted Nassar in jail and the people who allowed the abuse to go on to be held accountable for their actions. Maroney’s statement comes as the women’s gymnastics team competes at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and as the world and legal system continues to reassess Spears’ conservatorship, which has had her father and other appointed figures in control of her financially and physically for years. In the post, Maroney reflects on the commonalities between her and Spears’ experiences, and she sports a Spears’ shirt in the accompanying photos. “Britney’s story resonates with me so much because just like Britney, I also had to ‘fake it till you make it’ to survive my 2012 Olympics,” Maroney revealed. Maroney explained that the Framing Britney Spears documentary, which brought the issues with Spears’ conservatorship to light in early 2021, shows that “the media is hugely to blame” for her suffering. “To this day, media bullies celebrities and athletes with dramatic clickbait stories and false reports for their benefit. Not caring at all how it affects the person or family’s life,” wrote Maroney. She added that “it’s time to hold the media accountable for the damage they create.” RELATED: This Diane Sawyer Interview With Britney Spears Has People Outraged. Like Spears, Maroney wrote that at the 2012 Olympics, she was “was just trying to accomplish [her] dream, but,” she added: “I had abuse coming at me from many angles that I didn’t understand how to process at 15. I had to suppress it, and I had to minimize it, just to get through the day.” In 2018, when she first talked about the abuse, Maroney said Nassar began abusing her at the age of 13 and hundreds of times following that. Later that year, Maroney, along with more than 150 other victims, wrote impact statements that were read to him before he was sentenced. “It happened in London before my team and I won the gold medal, and it happened before I won my silver medal,” Maroney wrote in her statement. She also described one especially traumatizing moment for her. “For me, the scariest night of my life happened when I was 15 years old. I had flown all day and night with the team to get to Tokyo. He’d given me a sleeping pill for the flight, and the next thing I know, I was all alone with him in his hotel room getting a ’treatment.’ I thought I was going to die that night,” wrote Maroney. RELATED: For more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter. In her Instagram post, Maroney expressed that she felt acknowledging and discussing this darker part of her life veered from her usual character. “If you know me or have been following me, you probably have picked up that I’m naturally just a positive, bubbly person, who leans more towards optimism and having faith because that’s what makes me happy,” wrote Maroney. “So calling out abusers, and dwelling on all the dark negative pieces of my past felt extremely wrong for me.“ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb Maroney added that although she wanted to “move on” and return to being her usual self, she knew she had to push herself to speak out against Nassar. “I needed to learn the power of my voice, boundaries, and when to be resilient,” she wrote. The former gymnast also commended Spears for speaking out. “She deserves to spend the rest of her life healing in peace or doing whatever she wants,” Maroney wrote on Instagram. She then drew a comparison between the people controlling Spears’ life and those whole allowed abuse within elite gymnastics to persist. “The people who control her are criminals, and abusers, just like USA gymnastics, and the USOC [United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee] used me and their athletes for money but didn’t care to protect us,” she concluded, adding the hashtag #FreeBritney. RELATED: Women Athletes Are Calling Out the Olympics for Forcing Them to Do This.