N.J. 'Tan Mom' Patricia Krentcil Breaks Down, Says 'People Don't Understand What They Did'
NEW YORK (WLNY) -- It was a little over a year ago that New Jersey's "Tan Mom" was all over the news, all over the world.
Now she's back in the spotlight -- and not because of her skin.
But because of her singing.
Nutley's Patricia Krentcil, better known by most simply as "Tan Mom," recorded a single titled - what else? "It's Tan Mom."
"I've been singing my whole life, since I was a little girl," she said.
When recalling the events that launched her controversial rise to infamy, Krentcil became emotional. She said last year's series of events cost her family an incredible amount financially -- but that's the least of the damage.
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After a school nurse told police that Krentcil's daughter said she went "tanning with Mommy," Krentcil was arrested. Throughout the ordeal, the mother adamantly maintained that she would never take her daughter into a tanning booth. Ultimately, a grand jury failed to indict her.
But that didn't stop the family's suffering.
"That nurse made the worst mistake of her life," she said. "I don't think dollars can put something on it, for what they did to us, emotionally. That school is pathetic. It was definitely a set up, I don't care what anyone says."
Krentcil broke down into tears as she recalled the anguish the incident has caused.
"Something was not copacetic, I don't know what," she continued. "I have people looking into it as we speak."
In the last year, Krentcil has appeared in In Touch Weekly, posed for scandalous photos and helped to launch a skin care awareness campaign -- leading some to gather that she used the ordeal simply to become famous.
According to Krentcil, she'd prefer for none of this to have happened in the first place.
"Quite frankly, I'd rather just go to bed. For what they did to me, I like going out there and speaking about it."
"They just thought it was all a joke," she said. "People don't understand what they did."
