Joey Buttafuoco's Ex-Wife Speaks Out

This is a partial transcript of "The Big Story With John Gibson," May 18, 2007, that has been edited for clarity.

JULIE BANDERAS, GUEST HOST: A "Big Story" cable news exclusive interview: Right now you're about to watch the woman who miraculously survived a bullet from Amy Fisher's gun 15 years ago. You can call Mary Jo Buttafuoco, Mary Jo Connery now that she's using her maiden name again because she wants nothing to do with the name Buttafuoco ever again. And by the way, she happens to be engaged as well.

Now, her ex-husband Joey and his former mistress, the woman who actually tried to kill her by shooting her in the head, got together again to rekindle the romance this week. So, we wanted to know what she thought about that nauseating spectacle. I spoke to her just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY JO CONNERY, JOEY BUTTAFUOCO'S EX-WIFE: What can I tell you? I'm in New York to promote my new company and my new business and coincidentally, yesterday on the cover of the New York Post there was my ex with the woman who shot me in the head.

BANDERAS: And I know that at one point, I remember you were on "Oprah Winfrey," there was a reunion, which I think everybody was just shocked to see you and Amy actually talking. Did you ever forgive her?

CONNERY: You know, for my own peace of mind and to move on with my life, I did forgive her so that I could let go of the anger and I did meet with her last year. It was televised and I, you know, said my peace and I really felt very good about it. I felt like the bigger person. I went home feeling quite peaceful inside and I have to this day. I have never, ever spoken to her since, nor do I need to or want to. We're not friends or anything like that. She just wanted to tell me in person that she was sorry and I accepted that and we moved on and that was the end of it.

And I've had no contact with Joe. I had no idea this was going on. We're divorced; we have been for years. I stopped speaking with him a long time ago. Our children are adults. He's got his life, I've mine. So I was very, very surprised to see this.

BANDERAS: You know, it's interesting to hear you say he has his life. What do you think of his life? Do you think he has much of a life? I mean, I have to ask you.

CONNERY: Yeah, well, obviously not. If this is what he's doing, he is very much living in the past. I believe this is just for money. I don't think he has much going on in his life. He doesn't have a business. He doesn't have his home anymore. So I think that it is just a publicity stunt to try and get money.

BANDERAS: OK. So were you shocked to hear that Amy and Joey are actually on a date? And you talk about being televised — now you were allowed to be televised to talk to Amy about the whole thing. Now he's doing it. You think that he's doing this really for a reality show? Do you think that there's any chance that these two maybe want to try another shot at love?

CONNERY: Well, Jerry Springer's been on the air 20-some years. I guess there's always an audience for this kind of insanity. I don't know. I really don't know. I've got to be honest with you. He is not part of my life anymore nor has he been. This is like this little piece of icon history and for whatever it's worth, and now it is all being relived again because he's doing, him and her are doing kind of an outrageous thing. I am a little insulted. I'll tell you who's hurt the most is his children.

BANDERAS: Yeah, I would imagine for you it's got to certainly stir up pretty awful memories. How are you doing, by the way? I understand that you still have blurriness in one of your eyes. I mean, you almost died because of this.

CONNERY: I have no hearing in the right side of my head. I lost most of the vision in my right eye. My face is paralyzed on the right side. I have nerve damage. You know, I live with it. It's something I've lived with for 15 years. I'm grateful everyday that I can get up and put on my own shoes and wash myself and, you know, take care of what I need to take care of. I'm very blessed because they didn't give me a 10 percent chance to make it through the night when this happened.

BANDERAS: Wow. And let me just ask you this: Let's say hypothetically speaking that Joey and Amy somehow think, you know what, we've been dumped by everybody in our lives, might as well just get back together because nobody else wants us. Let's say hypothetically they actually fell in love and they got married and they invited you to the wedding. Would you go?

CONNERY: No. No.

BANDERAS: And do you think his kids would go?

CONNERY: Absolutely not. I know they wouldn't go. I can answer for both of them quite clearly.

BANDERAS: Imagine Amy Fisher as your kids' stepmom?

CONNERY: Oh my God. Oh no. No, no, no, no, no.

BANDERAS: Yeah. All right. Well let me talk about your company real quick because that is the real reason why you were in New York.

CONNERY: The name of my company — it's with my fiancé — it's OriginalPartyPosters.com. It is a Web business. My fiancé is a graphic designer and printer and I met him four-and-a-half years ago, and we have this great relationship. We get along so well and we started working together and decided to do this because my fiancé actually would make posters for family and friends and I thought it was such a great idea that we kind of put our heads together and built this great Web site. We've been working on it about a year now, and we've just got it up and running the past two months.

BANDERAS: All right. Mary Jo Connery, thank you very much for talking to us.

CONNERY: Thank you so much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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