America’s ‘Golden Boy’ had his flaws. The public knew about his struggles with alcoholism and substance abuse, but nothing prepared them for the shock in 2007. The 1992 Olympic gold medalist was scandalized when photos emerged of him wearing fishnet lingerie, high heels, and a wig. Embarrassed, he initially claimed the pictures were doctored.

However, by 2011, De La Hoya had grown tired of the lies. “I am tired now of lying, of lying to the public and of lying to myself,” he confessed to the New York Post. Embracing the truth, he admitted the man in the drag photos was indeed him.

Reflecting on the scandal recently, De La Hoya spoke candidly about the events that led to the embarrassing leak. With a touch of humor, he accepted his past, saying, “Yes, those were my legs.” His honesty revealed a man who had learned to laugh at himself, turning a moment of shame into one of redemption.

A coke-fueled night to forget!

On the Club Shay Shay podcast, sports analyst and retired NFL Tight End Shannon Sharpe probed Oscar De La Hoya about the scandalous photos of him that got leaked in 2007. De La Hoya retorted, “I was drugged up, I was drugged up. I didn’t even know it.” 

Further elaborating on the night the pictures were taken, the six-division champion revealed, “I was getting with bad people, this and that, two women come in my room with a suitcase….that’s all I remember. And after that, I wake up the next day.” Thereafter, Shannon asked a follow-up question: “What was in the suitcase?”—De La Hoya responded, “Women’s clothes, drugs, this..that”

For the uninitiated, he was photographed wearing women’s clothing alongside model and ex-stripper Milana Dravnel. Furthermore, he told Sharpe that there was no way he could wear the fishnet pantyhose on his own. “They set me up but it’s okay it happens,” Oscar said, emphasizing that he was now at peace with the fiasco that shook the boxing world up in 2007.

For anyone unversed in the incident, the question that might be bothering you is – how did the Olympic Gold medalist boxer try to cover up the embarrassing incident before revealing the truth in 2011?

Buying silence!

Reportedly, Oscar De La Hoya’s team paid $20 million to model Milana Dravnel to buy her silence. What’s more, Dravnel was also asked to return the heels, lingerie, and fishnets that were used in the scandalous photo session.

“I was in shock to find out the photos even existed and then the next day they were all over the news. Every single front page newspaper. Obviously, I had no more contact with Oscar, now I’m only dealing with his PR people and lawyer. It was not me selling the photos, of course they didn’t believe me” the ex-stripper claimed in a media interview.

But, that wasn’t all! De La Hoya’s legal team made sure that Dravnel “called every single newspaper that they knew” to claim that the images were fake. The 51-year-old fighter even hired a forensic expert to show the media that the pictures were doctored.

Nonetheless, De La Hoya coming clean on the incident has hopefully cleared his conscience. The candidness with which he spoke about the incident to Shannon Sharpe shows that he has embraced the uncomfortable truth, instead of fighting its existence.