Lorena and John Wayne Bobbitt: Ex-wife reveals how she rebuilt her life after slicing off husband's penis
The couple were divorced in 1995
![Lorena Bobbitt has revealed how she rebuilt her life](https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2015/11/10/12/bobbitt3.jpg)
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Louise Thomas
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The story of John Wayne Bobbitt and his former wife Lorena, never stops spinning.
More than 20 years ago, she sliced off his penis as he slept and threw it into a field, in order to stop him assaulting her.
Mr Bobbitt was acquitted of spousal rape, she was found not guilty of malicious wounding by reason of temporary insanity. He started a rock band and became an actor in ‘adult’ movies to pay the medical bills for the nine-hour operation for his appendage to be reattached. Last year, he was seriously injured in a traffic accident.
Now, Lorena Bobbitt has reappeared to reveal the life she has built for self in the years since, her new husband with whom she had had a child, and the work she has done, establishing a foundation to help abused women and children.
Somewhat bizarrely, she also revealed that her ex-husband had repeatedly tried to to contact her, even after she had made her nocturnal surgical intervention.
“He tried. But I always deleted his number,” the 46-year-old said, speaking to television journalist Steve Harvey.
“I mean, you know, I have my life. I have a new life now and I just want to focus on what is positive and I surrounded myself with positive people.”
![Lorena and John Wayne Bobbitt confronted each other in court](https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2015/11/10/11/Bobbitt2.jpg)
The woman who leapt unwillingly to international celebrity, was charged with assaulting her husband, only to be found not guilty by grounds of insanity. She spent 45 days under psychiatric evaluation.
Appearing on Mr Harvey’s show on Monday, Ms Bobbitt received rapturous applause from the audience.
“Few tales of lovers who lost it have left a bigger impact than John and Lorena Bobbitt,” said Mr Harvey.
![John Wayne Bobbitt was seriously injured last year](https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2015/11/10/11/Bobbitt1.jpg)
“Their volatile marriage, filled with allegations of abuse and infidelity, came to a gruesome conclusion when, in a fit of rage, Lorena took the one thing most precious to her husband and committed the one act every man fears the most.”
Ms Bobbit told the mainly female audience, she realised her story was more than a little strange, but that it was important to highlight the years of alleged domestic abuse she had suffered.
“My body couldn't take it. My mind couldn't take it. I was very scared, so obviously I snapped,” she said.
“I cut off his penis because he abused me that much. That's what happens when a man pushes a woman so far and so low.”
She said she now lived in Virginia with her second husband, David Bellinger and her ten-year-old daughter, Olivia and was committed to charity work. She had founded Lorena’s Red Wagon in order to help domestic abuse survivors.
“It basically helps women and children through family-oriented activities...I can provide for them. When a victim leaves the house they don’t have time to pack. They just have the first opportunity to leave,” she said.
“If any child in the shelter has a birthday we bring cakes...I want to bring hope to women and children of domestic abuse, and that’s what we do.”
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