Woman in Favre lewd photo scandal calls it 'embarrassing'

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The woman at the center of a tawdry scandal involving retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre says she never intended to be a "gold-digger" and just wants her life back, according to an interview on ABC News.

"It's never been my intention to ever play a victim in this whole thing," said Jenn Sterger, to whom Favre is accused of sending lewd photos and suggestive messages in 2008.

Sterger's interview with George Stephanopoulos is scheduled to air on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Tuesday.

"I just want my life back," said Sterger, a former game-day hostess for the New York Jets. "That's all I'm asking for."

The scandal turned her life "upside down," she said. "It was tough. It was embarrassing."

She said she wants to return to work but cannot because the scandal has made her "the joke."

"I haven't made a dime off anything in this whole situation," she added. "Not from the pictures. Not from Favre ... I'm not a gold-digger."

The inappropriate pictures and suggestive messages that Favre, one of the most decorated quarterbacks in NFL history in a career spanning two decades, allegedly sent to Sterger surfaced in an online sports blog in 2010.

The National Football League, without reaching a conclusion on whether he sent the messages, fined him $50,000 in December and reprimanded him for not being "candid" during its investigation.

Also, Favre is being sued by former Jets massage therapists who say he made unwanted sexual advances to them in 2008, when he played for the New York team, and that the Jets stopped offering them work after they complained

Favre retired in January from the Minnesota Vikings.

He was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player three times and to the Pro Bowl All-Star team 11 times. He guided the Green Bay Packers to a Super Bowl victory in 1997.

(Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Greg McCune)