Oscar De La Hoya: “Yes, it was me in fishnet stockings pictures.”
Oscar De La Hoya admits cheating on his wife and drug abuse.
Oscar De La Hoya became the subject of the photo scandal in 2007, when stripper Milana Dravnel, who claimed he had cheated on his wife with her, posted the embarrassing images on the internet.
In a stunning revelation, Oscar De La Hoya, known as the “Golden Boy”, has admitted that the infamous photos of him dressed in a drag were in fact real.
The boxing legend had denied back in 2007 that images of him wearing fishnet stockings and high heels had been doctored and were fakes.
Oscar De La Hoya in fishnet stockings and high heels
In 2007, Oscar De La Hoya’s handlers brushed off the photos as “bad Photoshop jobs” and the stripper Milana Dravnel as a “money-grubber”.
But he has now come clean, saying the scandalous photos were taken while he was high on drugs and alcohol.
In an interview with the Spanish-language network, Univision, which aired Tuesday night, Oscar De La Hoya revealed the truth.
“Let me tell you, yes, yes, it was me [in those photos],” he said on news show Here and Now.
“I am tired now of lying, of lying to the public and of lying to myself.”
In the same interview, the boxing legend spoke about his marital, drug and alcohol problems.
The New York Post had published photos of “Golden Boy” frolicking with Siberian model Milana Dravnel.
Oscar De la Hoya’s legal team even brought in their own “photo expert”, who said the photos were a computer-generated forgery.
His spokeswoman said of the photos:
“His head’s too small and it doesn’t even look like his body.”
Oscar De La Hoya reportedly hired a team of lawyers, a PR firm and business associates to discredit Milana Dravnel and goad her into retracting her story.
But when Milana Dravnel filed a lawsuit claiming that De La Hoya’s team had duped her into saying that the photos were not real, she was ultimately paid $20 million by the boxer to silence her, court documents have revealed.
Oscar De La Hoya and Milana Dravnel
Milana Dravnel was also ordered to return the lingerie, high heels and fishnet stockings that she has kept after their saucy photo shoot.
The boxing legend said that he unraveled after the pictures came out and thought about ending his life.
Oscar De La Hoya has two children with Millie Coretjer, whom he married in 2001.
He also has a daughter with former beauty queen and Playboy model Shanna Moakler.
Oscar De La Hoya retired from boxing in 2009 after a 16-year career that won him 10 world titles in six divisions.