Mary Jo Buttafuoco Reveals How She Feels About Her Shooter Now Ahead of Lifetime Movie
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What To Know
- Mary Jo Buttafuoco shares her perspective and healing journey for the first time in the Lifetime film I Am Mary Jo Buttafuoco, recounting the aftermath of being shot by her husband’s teenage mistress.
- Now 70, Mary Jo reflects on lessons learned and how she feels about her ex and shooter.
In 1992, on the doorstep of her family home, Mary Jo Buttafuoco was shot in the head by 17-year-old Amy Fisher, who she would later learn was her husband Joey’s mistress. As she lay in the hospital battling for her life (the bullet is still lodged in her neck), the 37-year-old mother of two was thrust into a media frenzy that focused on sensationalizing the affair and her assailant, dubbed the “Long Island Lolita.”
For the first time, Mary Jo narrates her own story, which is one of love, faith, truth, resilience and healing. The film, I Am Mary Jo Buttafuoco, allows her to discuss why she remained with Joey for years following the shooting, the lasting emotional and physical impact she was left with (facial paralysis and hearing loss, battling depression, suicidal thoughts and addiction), and how she has been able to find peace. “Today, I stand not as a victim, but as a survivor who has turned unimaginable pain into purpose,” she says.
“I’ve hit 70,” Mary Jo tells us. “And I have a perspective now that I never used to have. There’s something weird about getting old. I hate what it does to the body, but I love what it does to the mind because all of a sudden, things don’t matter that much anymore. … I want to live life now calmly, happily, quietly. I have been through enough.”
Read on for more from Mary Jo Buttafuoco.
What she’s learned: In spite of people hurting you or doing “crummy things to you,” have faith and move forward. “You can make it even when you’re in the worst time of your life.”
Cringing over ex-husband Joey: “He’s a sociopath. There’s no question about it. … He lied to me and had me believing that this was just a fluke thing.” She addresses in the film why she remained married to Joey for years after the shooting. “He fooled my parents, his parents, his siblings. … We all look back and go, ‘Man, he was good. He didn’t flinch at all.’”
Her thoughts on Amy Fisher, now 51: “I’m not afraid of her at all. I shake my head and go, ‘Wow, she’s her own worst enemy. She doesn’t need me to pile on.'”
I Am Mary Jo Buttafuoco, Movie Premiere, Saturday, January 17, 8/7c, Lifetime
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