Debi Thomas has gone from former Olympian to broke and living in a bedbug-infested trailer after two divorces and a failed career as a physician, the ex-ice skater revealed on an Oprah Winfrey News reality show. If she was looking for pity, she sure didn't get any.
Thomas became the first African-American to medal at the Winter Olympics when she took home a figure skating bronze in 1988 at Calgary, noted the
Huffington Post. The accomplishment, though, was considered a disappointment by many after winning the U.S. and World Championships.
Since the Olympics, the Stanford University graduate had two failed marriages, lost two jobs after becoming an orthopedic surgeon and failed to get a private practice off the ground in Virginia, noted the Huffington Post.
"You don't have to do it by yourself this time," life coach Iyanla Vanzant told Thomason the episode of
"Iyanla, Fix My Life" on OWN, now in its third season, "And you didn't do anything wrong."
"I did the best I could," Thomas said on the show which aired on Saturday. "I feel like I'm hurting people that I care about."
Vanzant told Thomas she had to work on becoming a better person reaching out to others, according to OWN.
"You can't help anybody until you can help you," Iyanla told Thomas.
Thomas, who admitted to problems with alcohol and anger issues, lost custody of her 13-year-old son and now lives with the her fiancée and his two children, said the
New York Daily News. Thomas expressed "frustration" at her situation, and Vanzant offered an ounce of tough love.
"Not sad, not angry, not ashamed?" asked Vanzant. "No," Thomas replied.
"Not guilty that you've got a man, two kids and a bedbug infestation in a trailer," Vanzant asked Thomas. "Frustration is what you feel? Nothing else?"
"This is what I know: You're living in a trailer in the Appalachian Mountains and your son ain't with you," Vanzant told a crying Thomas. "You're raising somebody else's children. So, you can tell me whatever you want to tell me. Telling yourself the truth is important."
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