Jesse James Nightline Interview: Does Anyone Care?

by Amy Judd | May 26, 2010 at 08:56 am

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Jesse James' Nightline Interview Aired Tuesday May 25 But Does Anyone Care About James?

Jesse James spoke about a number of very serious issues on his Nightline interview with Vicki Mabrey on Tuesday May 25 including cheating on wife Sandra Bullock, childhood abuse and going in to rehab.

James said that due to being a victim of childhood abuse that is what drove him to cheat on his wife and said that shame and a 'lack of self worth' is what caused him to cheat and basically destroy his life.

What some will say was the biggest revelation was the fact that James said he suffered abuse at the hands of his father Larry and said he was a man who physically and emotionally abused him. He said that his whole childhood he never had the chance to be a kid and he was always scared.

"I was petrified of my dad... It wasn't so much getting the sh** beat out of me or getting my arm broken or getting kicked or whatever or punched, it was the in-between time.

He started to cry when he spoke of how his daughter Sunny is the same age he was when his dad broke his arm. James' father has said that the allegations are not true.

James related the break-up of his marriage and his cheating to his childhood.

"I grew up with a huge amount of shame and fear and abandonment on my shoulders from a very young age and I think, you know, the way my mind rationalized [cheating], 'Well, you know, I might as well do whatever I can to like run her off cause she is going to find out what I am anyway and leave me anyway,'" James told ABC’s Nightline.

He said that what he did was a kind of 'self-sabotage', which is what a lot of people do who have suffered abuse - he said he did not do this to Sandra Bullock deliberately. 'It is all about pushing someone away that I thought was going to leave anyway' he told Mabrey.

He revealed that he does not think he has a sex addiction despite allegedly sleeping with multiple women, but he did not admit to how many affairs he may have had, just that he has been 'unfaithful'.

Said James: "I lived this false self for so long because I, you know, I didn't want anybody to see the real me.

"I really wish I didn't have to go through all this and put everybody else through this to get to this place, but hopefully with time and my actions, and the things that I do, I hope people realize that, you know, ‘Hey, I'm human, I make mistakes and I'm sorry for what I did.’"

Despite this hopefully honest and heartfelt interview, does anyone care about what Jesse James has to say at this point? Do you think he deserves an outlet for his emotion and his story or is he trying to gain sympathy votes from Sandra's fans?