It’s been over a decade since Casey Anthony’s name dominated headlines across the country. Now she’s finally speaking out in her first on-camera interview since she was cleared of murder, manslaughter and child abuse charges in 2011 following the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.
“Casey Anthony: Where the Truth Lies,” a three-part limited docuseries, premiered November 29 on Peacock. Peacock is owned by NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.
In the series, Anthony maintains some of the same claims her legal team made in her defense all those years ago – including that she was sexually assaulted by her father, George Anthony, and that he lied to cover up Caylee’s death. George Anthony previously denied both claims in court.
Caylee was last seen on June 16, 2008, investigators say. Cindy Anthony, Caylee’s grandmother, reported the child missing on July 15, 2008 – 31 days later. The next day, police arrested Casey Anthony on charges of child neglect. At the time, she told investigators that the toddler had been taken by a babysitter.
Six months later, Caylee’s skeletal remains were found less than a mile from her grandparents’ home in Orlando.
In her bombshell interview with Alexandra Dean, showrunner and director, Casey Anthony makes several other revelations.
She lied to investigators
Anthony was eventually convicted of four counts of lying to investigators investigating her child’s 2008 disappearance.
She falsely told investigators that her daughter had disappeared with a babysitter, who she later said did not exist, and said she was working at Universal Studios in Orlando when she did not.
“It was the correct guilty verdict. I lied to the police, I admitted that I lied to the police, so I am a convicted liar. It’s the truth,” she said in the new series.
In an attempt to explain why she had lied, Anthony said it was because she had been abused as a child and still followed her father’s instructions – even after seeing her daughter’s limp body.
“I lied to everyone because that was my whole life up to that point,” she said on the series. “Pretending everything is fine, but knowing that nothing was. I’ve had years of therapy and I’m trying to analyze my own behavior and explain my own behavior, this is all a response to trauma.”
“I drove myself crazy. And gave law enforcement absolutely no reason to believe or trust anything I said,” she continued.
“I understand why this all looks like this from the outside…” She trailed off. “Because even to me it still feels that way. As far as I am concerned, there is no justification for my actions or behavior except to say that I did what I was conditioned to do.”
She claims she was abused by her father
In the documentary, Anthony repeated her previous allegations that her father abused her between the ages of eight and 12, which her father denied.
“When I was 8 years old, my dad started coming into my room at night,” she said. “I was physically hurt, scared because I was physically hurt and I ‘can’t tell mom what happened (or) she’ll get mad at me’. That’s what I was told.”
George Anthony refused to be interviewed for the Peacock series. He did not respond to multiple requests for comment from TODAY.com.
She claims Caylee was the product of rape when she was 18
In the documentary, Anthony said her family also asked her to hide the fact that she was pregnant at the age of 18.
She said she was raped at a house party after being drugged.
“(I) had a few beers, completely lost my memory because I was drugged,” she said. “I woke up with my top on, my jeans on the floor with my underwear and my bra still in my shirt but over my bust.”
She added that she was “sluggish” and “extremely disoriented” from the drugs and “could feel as though (she) had had forced sex.”
She said she initially claimed the baby belonged to her ex-boyfriend, but eventually got a paternity test and found out he was not the father.
“I lied to everyone,” she said. “That’s what I’m saying it’s so f—-d up it’s just years of feeling like I had to live a certain life or show people I lived a certain life because I didn’t want people to felt sorry for me and I didn’t want my child to grow up thinking she was the product of something so bad and I didn’t want her.
What she remembers from that fateful morning: ‘It’s not much’
Anthony talked about the morning her daughter probably died in front of the cameras. She said she woke up that morning to make her daughter breakfast, but “didn’t feel very well.” She went back to bed, turned on the TV, and Caylee got into bed with her.
“I’ve been a light sleeper all my life,” she said in the documentary. “Because I’m used to someone opening the door when I’m sleeping. I am used to being alert, especially with my child next to me. It’s part of why she’s slept in bed with me so many times.
She said she knew her father was home, but she fell asleep and “slept for a while.”
The next thing she remembers, she said, is her father shaking her and asking where Caylee was. She said it “made no sense” because she thought her toddler had been in bed next to her.
Anthony added that her daughter “would never even leave my room without telling me, even if she had to go to the bathroom.”
“She knew she couldn’t be alone in the house,” she said.
Anthony said she started searching the house and then the yard for her daughter. By the time she returned from searching outside the house, she said, her father was “standing there with her.”
“She’s soaking wet,” she said in tears. “I see him standing there with her in his arms, handing her to me and telling me it’s my fault. That I did. That I caused it.”
She said she “collapsed” with Caylee’s body in her arms, which felt “heavy” and “cold”.
Instead of calling 911 or trying to revive Caylee, Anthony said her father took Caylee and told her she was “going to be fine”.
“I don’t know how long I sat out, I don’t know where he went, he took her off me and he left,” she said. “I don’t know where he went and I don’t know what he did.”
Why she didn’t call 911
Anthony said she understands people will wonder why she didn’t call 911 or wait to tell her mom.
“I know people will wonder why I didn’t call, why didn’t I call 911, why did even I wait to tell my mom something but I didn’t tell her, why lie?” she said. “Knowing that I failed to protect my child and that I continued to abandon her even after that. I’ve let her down time and time again. Because I was still protecting the person who hurt me.
“It was like being brainwashed. And it wasn’t until much later that I really started to realize why,” she said. “It’s like I have Stockholm syndrome.”
Anthony believed her daughter was fine until her body was found
“During the 31 days, I honestly believed that Caylee was alive. My dad kept telling me that Caylee was still fine,” she shared in the new docuseries. “There were no threats, I just knew I had to do what he wanted, for the same reason I’ve known that since I was 8 years old. Just do what he wants, it worked before, do it now. I did what I had to do to survive.”
She added that her father would tell her that Caylee was “fine” and to “just keep doing what I tell you to do… You will be reunited soon.” That’s what stays with me – he told me at one point that we would soon be reunited.
Anthony said she was “conditioned” by her father to believe that her daughter was alive.
“I really wanted to believe him, and maybe that’s the dissociation. Maybe I’m trying to protect myself from the pain of always knowing deep down that something happened and I didn’t want to face it,” she said. “I wish it was a simple answer and a simple explanation, but nothing about trauma or abuse is ever simple because you’re just trying to survive.
“All that time he told me she was going to be okay. It’s what I chose to accept because there was that little girl in me that wanted to believe he wouldn’t hurt her the way he hurt me.
Anthony says she still doesn’t know ‘what the truth is’
Anthony in the new Peacock series has never said outright what she thinks happened that morning, directly stating that she “don’t know what the truth is.”
“That’s why this is all so difficult. I live with that guilt as if I let her down and didn’t protect and protect her. I’ve always wanted the truth because I’ve lived without it for so long,” she said. “But I don’t know if I can handle it all. I don’t know if it would be better to know or just not to know. Because I don’t know what the truth is. I only know that something happened.”
What’s next?
In the years since her trial, Anthony has worked for her attorney, Pat McKenna. She also said in the docuseries that she lived at his house with his family after her trial when she was back on her feet.
She said she will always wonder what could have happened if she had handled her daughter’s death differently.
“It’s hard to live with every day because nothing will bring her back,” she said emotionally. “Even if I get the answers I need one day, it will never be enough. It will never be enough.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
