Sue Paterno, widow of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, will sit down with Katie Couric next week for her first interview since 2011 when news broke about the pedophile scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
The interview is being billed by
Couric's syndicated daytime talk show website as Sue Paterno's "first conversation since the scandal broke and since she lost her beloved husband of 50 years." The interview will air on "Katie" on Feb. 11.
"Joe Paterno passed away just two months after the scandal was exposed, leaving behind his wife and family, and many unanswered questions about what he knew and did not know," the website said.
Joe Paterno died of complications from lung cancer on Jan. 22, 2012, at 85.
Until the scandal, Joe Paterno had been considered a hero during his near 50-year stint as Penn State's head coach. Then Sandusky's sex abuse scandal led to his firing in November 2011.
When Sandusky, a longtime associate of Paterno, first faced allegations of child molestation, questions swirled about whether Paterno helped conceal his actions.
After a lengthy investigation and incendiary trial,
Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse in June 2012 and sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison.
The following month, the NCAA vacated all of Penn State's wins from 1998 through 2011 as part of its punishment for the child sex abuse scandal, eliminating 111 of the games Paterno had coached and won and dropping him from second to 12th on the list of winningest NCAA football coaches, according to ESPN.
An investigation conducted by former FBI director Louis Freeh made a reasonable conclusion in July 2012 that Paterno concealed facts relating to Sandusky's sexual abuse of young boys, USA Today reported.
The Paterno family has always defended the late coach's actions in the case, insisting he did what was expected of him by reporting Sandusky to college administrators.
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