Tonya Harding Net Worth (Money & Salary)

What is Tonya Harding’s Net Worth?

Tonya Harding, currently known as Tonya Price, is an American former Olympic figure skater possessing a net worth of $150,000. She won the Figure Skating Championships in 1991 and secured a 2nd place finish in the World Championships. Notably, Harding made history as the first American woman to successfully land a triple axel in competition. Yet, she is perhaps best remembered for her purported involvement in the attack on fellow skater Nancy Kerrigan in 1994, which led to her lifetime ban from figure skating. Afterward, Harding transitioned to professional boxing and participated in ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” in 2018, where she finished in third place.

In 2017, the movie “I, Tonya,” featuring Margot Robbie as Harding, received numerous accolades and resulted in an Academy Award nomination for Robbie. Tonya reportedly earned only $1,500 for licensing her rights for “I, Tonya,” but also received performance-based bonus incentives. This film helped to reshape Tonya’s image, portraying her more as a victim than the villain she was previously seen as.

(Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for NEON)

Early Life

Tonya Maxene Harding was born in Portland, Oregon, on November 12, 1970. Her mother, LaVona, worked as a waitress while her father, Albert, who passed away in 2009, had various jobs including apartment manager and truck driver. At just 3 years old, Tonya began skating and trained with coach Diane Rawlinson. Since the family budget did not allow for purchased outfits, LaVona sewed Tonya’s figure skating costumes by hand. When Tonya was 16, her parents divorced, and she left Milwaukie High School during her sophomore year to focus fully on her skating career. She completed her GED in 1988. Tonya later revealed that she faced both physical and psychological abuse from her mother. According to “The Tonya Tapes,” an authorized biography from 2008, she was raped by an acquaintance in 1991 and suffered molestation from her half-brother, Chris Davison, during her childhood.

Skating Career

Tonya placed sixth at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 1986, followed by fifth place finishes in the subsequent two years and a third place in 1989. After the 1989 Nationals Championship, she began training with coach Dody Teachman and won that year’s Skate America competition. Despite being in second place at one point in the 1990 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Harding ultimately finished seventh due to setbacks from asthma and the flu. However, she made history during the 1991 U.S. Championships as the first American woman to land a triple Axel. That same year, she claimed the U.S. Ladies’ Singles title and took second in the World Championships. In 1992, she achieved third place at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, came in fourth at the Winter Olympics, and placed sixth in the World Championships, along with a fourth-place finish in the Skate Canada International event. While Harding won the 1994 U.S. Championships, she was later stripped of the title following the Nancy Kerrigan incident. She finished eighth in the 1994 Winter Olympics and, despite her ban from figure skating, she competed in the 1999 ESPN Pro Skating Championship.

and secured the second position.

(Photo by Andreas Altwein/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Nancy Kerrigan Attack

On January 6, 1994, during a practice session at the Detroit Cobo Arena for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Nancy Kerrigan was attacked by a man who struck her right knee multiple times as she exited the ice. It was revealed later that the attacker had been hired by Tonya’s ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, along with his friend Shawn Eckhardt. Although Harding claimed she had no prior knowledge of the assault, interviews with Gillooly, Eckhardt, and the assailant Shane Stant indicated that she was indeed aware and had assisted in plotting the incident. Tonya was permitted to compete in the 1994 Olympics, but upon returning from Lillehammer, she pleaded guilty to knowing about the attack after it occurred and failing to report it. Her sentence included three years of probation, community service for 500 hours, and a $100,000 fine; additionally, on June 30, 1994, the United States Figure Skating Association banned her from the sport.

(CRAIG STRONG/AFP via Getty Images)

Boxing Career

In 2002, Harding took part in Fox’s “Celebrity Boxing,” where she secured a victory against Paula Jones. Her initial professional boxing bout occurred in February 2003, resulting in a loss to Samantha Browning. Following that, she participated in a celebrity boxing match on Comedy Central’s “The Man Show,” defeating comedian Doug Stanhope, a co-host of the show. Reports in March 2004 indicated that Tonya canceled a scheduled boxing match in Oakland, California, due to receiving death threats. Her final match took place in June 2004 against Amy Johnson, where she lost and faced a chorus of boos upon entering the ring. Ultimately, she decided to retire from boxing due to her asthma.

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Personal Life

Tonya began a relationship with Jeff Gillooly when she was just 15 years old, and he was 17. They exchanged vows on March 18, 1990. Despite their divorce in August 1993, Jeff continued to oversee Tonya’s skating career. The two reconciled in October and lived together in a rented apartment.

Until January 1994, they shared the Beavercreek chalet. From 1995 to 1996, Harding was married to Michael Smith, and on June 23, 2010, she married Joseph Price. A son, Gordon, was born to the couple on February 19, 2011.

In 1996, Tonya notably assisted 81-year-old Alice Olson, performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on her at a bar in Portland after Olson collapsed. Later, in 2000, Harding faced arrest for assaulting her boyfriend, Darren Silver. Subsequently, she received a sentence that included three days in prison, a suspended sentence of 167 days, and 10 days of community service. The judge mandated that Tonya refrain from alcohol consumption for two years and attend anger management classes. Since her careers in figure skating and boxing concluded, Harding has taken on various jobs, including painter, welder, deck builder, and clerk at Sears.