Casey Anthony speaks out: 5 revelations

The Florida mom once labeled the "most hated woman in America" breaks her silence for the first time since being acquitted in the murder of her daughter, Caylee

Casey Anthony
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Casey Anthony, the Florida "tot mom" acquitted in the death of her two-year-old daughter Caylee, broke her silence Tuesday night in a phone interview with CNN's Piers Morgan. Since the July 2011 conclusion of her high-profile trial, which inspired a media circus that largely vilified Anthony, she dropped out of sight, surfacing briefly when a "video diary" in which she talks about her pet dog was uploaded on YouTube in January. Morgan did not broadcast the phone interview, but he quoted Anthony extensively and talked with her lawyer, Cheney Mason. (Watch a clip below.) Here, five of the biggest revelations:

1. She maintains her innocence

"Obviously, I didn't kill my daughter," Anthony says, according to Morgan. (Anthony was acquitted of murder charges in the 2008 death of her daughter, Caylee, but was convicted on four counts of lying to authorities investigating the girl's disappearance.) The 26-year-old maintains "there's nothing in this world I've ever been more proud of" than her daughter, calling Caylee her "greatest accomplishment." Morgan said he was "struck" by Anthony's eagerness to reiterate her innocence so firmly, which she did without any prompting.

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2. She's miserable

Anthony was once described as the "most hated woman in America," says Mark Mooney and Christina Ng at ABC News. She says she's "gone through hell" since the trial concluded and doesn't dare leave the house where she's been hiding this past year for fear of being heckled. Mason called Anthony's current life a "different prison."

3. She's not going to sell her story... yet

Morgan asked if Anthony had any plans to market her story as a tell-all book, eliciting a passionate response: "I'm not making gazillions dollars at the hands of other people...." She added that she doesn't "give an [expletive] about money." Anthony's lawyer, however, was less definitive. "We are sitting back watching… When the time comes she will have her story to tell."

4. She thinks the perception of her is false

Anthony was branded with a wild party-girl image when the prosecution used details of her lifestyle to tar her during the trial. Anthony knows "the caricature of me that is out there," but claims "it couldn't be further from the truth." She says she's "never been a party girl," and currently doesn't drink, estimating that she's "only had a handful of beers" since her probation started. (Anthony is on probation for a check fraud conviction.)

5. She's a pop culture junkie

So what has Anthony been up to since the trial ended? "Reading The Hunger Games and watching The Three Stooges. (No really)," says Meredith Blake at the Los Angeles Times. Since the predictable exchange between Morgan and Anthony "was hardly the interview of the century," details about her day-to-day life were the most compelling. According to Mason, she watches old black-and-white movies, I Love Lucy reruns, and The Three Stooges. He says she was obsessed with The Hunger Games trilogy, a detail upon which Morgan quickly seized: "You know, The Hunger Games is about kids killing each other? Weird subject matter."

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