Shawn Johnson opens up about almost getting abducted by her stalker in 2009: 'It was like a horror film'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Olympian Shawn Johnson attends the "Before I Fall" New York Special Screening in New York City (Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images)
Shawn Johnson opened up about nearly being kidnapped while she was on "Dancing With the Stars."
The Olympic gold medalist recalled the moment in March 2009 when she was almost abducted by her stalker, Robert O'Ryan. She was taping "DWTS" when O'Ryan jumped the fence to the studio and broke into the building to confront Johnson.
“‘He broke onto the set. He broke onto the stage. He was tackled on the stage. He was arrested and taken off property. He's being held in custody,’” Johnson explained to ABC News. She was rushed back to her trailer only to find the FBI there along with her mother who was crying.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}SHAWN JOHNSON, ANDREW EAST ANNOUNCE PREGNANCY AFTER 2017 MISCARRIAGE
The authorities said at the time they found zip ties, duct tape, guns, knives and love letters addressed to Johnson in his car.
“They said that he had handwritten letters to me, and love notes. And that this whole plan he had constructed to essentially abduct me, not to harm me,” the 27-year-old said. “He, in his state of delusion, thought that I was the mother of his unborn children, at 16, and he would never harm me. But he was going to kill anyone that got in the way.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Johnson said the experience was “surreal… like I was watching a horror film.”
O'Ryan was arrested and in June 2010 sentenced to a mental hospital where he spent five years. He was released but ordered not to contact Johnson in any way.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She admitted that she's still paranoid and fearful because of the experience. Right after the ordeal, she hired full-time security, got a different car, moved into a new home, would use different names and changed her phone number.
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"I have been driving down the street before, and paranoid that the yellow car behind me has been following me for too long," Johnson said. "I have been walking down the street and if someone even resembles Robert O'Ryan, I go into just a cold sweat."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Johnson added that over the last decade she's gotten married to Washington Redskins football player Andrew East and is now expecting her first child. The new couple shares some of their personal lives on their YouTube channel.
"We chronicle our life for the world, and show them all of the glamour and terribly not glamorous things about our life," she said.