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Patricia Krentcil, dubbed “Tan Mom” in 2012, said the constant media scrutiny was destroying her soul.
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Krentcil told Insider that she has reshaped her wild childish ways and is no longer respected.
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After losing her husband, Richard, she said she was a little off, but didn’t rush into anything.
Patricia Krentcil is in a good place these days. And that spot isn’t a tanning bed for the most part.
The woman dubbed “Tan Mom” ten years ago said she has lost the personality that haunted her “every day for the past 10 years.”
In May 2012, Krentcil was pushed to internet celebrity for all the wrong reasons from living under the radar in suburban Nutley, New Jersey. She spoke to Insider about how that sudden social media exposure has affected her and her family’s lives, even years later.
The long-term tanning addict was accused of putting her then 5-year-old daughter Anna into a tanning bed with her; she was subsequently arrested and charged with endangering children. It put her in jail for a week before she was acquitted of all charges. Krentcil has always insisted that she never tanned her daughter or exposed her to harmful UV light.
But social media had a field day, taunting the tanning fan and giving her the nickname that stuck as a cheap self-tanner.
As Krentcil told Insider, the ordeal has affected both her bank account and her psyche. “When ‘tan mom’ hit, I was a wreck,” she said, adding that attorneys’ fees to defend themselves against child endangerment charges “cost us almost two houses.”
She changed her life
The collateral damage hit her where it hurt. “I couldn’t tan — I was banned,” she said, referring to her banishment from multiple local tanning salons after her arrest.
Her life after the scandal has had its highs, such as becoming a regular on the Howard Stern show, and its lows, such as being dressed up by passersby about her parenting.
But the 54-year-old mother of five said she has turned a corner in her life. “I’m a completely different person today — I’ve changed my whole attitude to life. I’ve changed my life,” she said. “I’m not respected anymore. I don’t party or do crazy things.”
She said her husband, Richard, died last summer after being diagnosed with colon cancer, COVID-19 and pneumonia. “We had our ups and downs, but he was my best friend,” she said through tears. He was Krentcil’s second husband, with whom she shared two of her five children, including Anna, now 16, and her youngest son, Addison, 13.
Though she’s been casual with each other since Richard’s death, she said she wants to focus on her family: “I don’t rush relationships, that’s not the most important thing.”
Krentcil said Richard was her support during the media attack that tested the family’s courage. “They took my whole soul, they took my energy,” she said, recalling that the paparazzi hid in the vegetation outside her New Jersey home, tracking her movements for years.
She just wants to be a great mom
Since moving to Boca Raton, Florida — 1,000 miles from the center of the media storm that left her scars — she’s had space to process the fascination and disapproval she’s faced. “I’ve always been a great mom and I will continue to be a great mom. Anyone in my position at that particular moment would have lost it and I had the energy to stay strong through my worst hours,” she said. , before dissolving in tears.
Krentcil said the media frenzy took a psychological toll on her children. “We all have memories of this whole thing,” she said.
As for her one-time favorite hobby that started when she was 25, there’s a cloud of remorse hanging over her. “I didn’t mean to get that dark,” she told Insider that she’s thankful she didn’t get skin cancer. “I’m here for a reason, and I need to make sure I’m here for my kids.”
The mother always had one piece of advice for her children: “I’ve always told them to stand firm in your life. I try to follow my own advice.”
Today, she swears off sunbathing — mostly. “I’m not dark anymore. I’m very happy. It’s exhausting to keep it up.”
As a reformed tanner, Krentcil said she’s considering selling the $5,000 tanning bed that’s in her Florida basement.
Read the original article on Insider
