Janay Rice, speaking out for the first time about what happened inside that casino elevator, said she was "sick to (her) stomach" after she watched video of the altercation with her husband. She added, "I just broke down in tears."
Janay Rice told ESPN's Jemele Hill that she confronted her husband about what really happened after the couple watched the horrific scene play out on the news.
She said, "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. He told me he was in
shock."
Janay Rice, also speaking to NBC News about the tense moments following the couple's release from jail, said, "I was furious. I came home and we didn't talk the entire ride. Well I didn't speak to him the entire ride home. He tried to talk to me. I didn't want to hear anything. I just knew he hit me and I was completely over it. I was done."
And while Ray Rice publicly accepted responsibility and apologized to his then-fiance, Janay says it was weeks before she was ready to hear him out.
She told NBC, "I just didn't even want to entertain him. Anything that he had to say, any explanation. Of course in the back of my mind, in my heart I knew that our relationship wouldn't be over because I know this isn't us.
And despite NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell saying he wasn't given the whole story by Ray Rice, according to Janay Rice, Ray Rice held nothing back, "Ray told the commissioner, and his colleagues, everything that happened," she said. "There was no reason to lie because we knew that there was a video and we assumed the NFL knew what was in it."