Janay Rice is finally talking about what really happened the night Ray Rice knocked her unconscious. In an interview with ESPN, she gives details about what really went down in the elevator, and how it’s impacted them since.
“There was something different about that day,” she says. “The two of us were just off, starting that morning. I was annoyed because it was Valentine’s Day and Ray and one of his friends had planned a group trip to Atlantic City, while I had wanted to do something with just the two of us.”
Rice explained that once they got to Atlantic City with a group of friends, they went to a club and shared a few bottles of liquor and had a good time. Afterwards, they journeyed to a restaurant where everything took a turn for the worse.
“We were drunk and tired and while I know that some people may find it hard to believe, none of the six of us can remember exactly what Ray and I were arguing about,” she says. “It was that insignificant.”
“As we were arguing, he was on his phone and not looking at me. I went to reach for his phone, and when he grabbed it back, he spit at me and I slapped him.
“We got into the elevator and what happened inside is still foggy to me,” Rice continued. “The only thing I know—and I can’t even say I ‘remember’ because I only know from what Ray has told me—is that I slapped him again and then he hit me. I remember nothing else from inside the elevator.
“The next thing I do recall is being in the casino lobby, surrounded by cops.”
Rice says she and Ray Rice were then arrested and taken to a police station where she refused to believe what the cops were telling her happened, even though they had it all on camera.
Rice was not ready when the first video of the incident was released. She shared her conversation with her fiancé after watching it for the first time.
“The video didn’t make me rethink our relationship, but I did want more of an explanation from him. I asked him why he left me on the floor like that. I asked him how he felt when he saw that I was unconscious,” Rice says. “He told me he was in shock. I asked him what happened when we got out of the elevator. He told me he was terrified because security was there. I asked him how he felt seeing me like that. He said he was thinking, ‘What did I just do?’”
Yesterday, it was announced that Ray Rice won the appeal of his suspension and is now eligible to play again for the NFL, although there is no word yet on if he’ll be returning to his former team. Janay Rice says that although their future is unclear, she knows she’s learned a valuable lesson from the experience.