14 DAY TRIAL // Just yesterday, we were telling you ABC had made available footage from the interview with Jesse James for Nightline, in which he was saying that, deep down inside, he wanted to be caught cheating on Sandra Bullock because he was on a mission of self-sabotaging his own life. The two videos embedded at the end of this article explain what James actually meant by that, while also showing the star’s defense for the Nazi photo that emerged a while back.
For starters, Jesse James has to answer the tough question of why he went to rehab in the aftermath and what exactly he was looking to solve by seeking professional help. From the footage made available, he doesn’t put a name to it, but he does stress that the stint in rehab ultimately worked to make him understand that all his bad-boy image was nothing but a smokescreen behind which hid a 7-year-old boy who was often physically abused by his father.
Upon realizing that his son is now the same age as he was when his father broke his arm as he savagely beat him, Jesse James chokes on his tears and, aware that he can’t continue the interview like that, asks for a minute to recollect himself. He then returns to answer more questions, including about how he told Sandra of his many affairs, what she said when he informed her he was going to rehab, and how seeing the actress’ interview in People magazine, with newly adopted baby Louis on the cover, made him feel.
Jesse James doesn’t want a divorce and he says so out loud in the interview – but that’s not to say that it’s not happening. One thing that he still has control over is that troubling rumor that he’s a Nazi and a racist. “I told her basically everything. I had affairs outside of our marriage. I lied and lied my way out of it. I lied to everyone about everything, even to myself. I think out of anything this is why I’m doing this interview the most. Because dealing with losing my marriage and my son and embarrassing everyone and decimating my life. But to be called a racist on top of that, it makes me really sad seeing the photo and the way I look,” James says.
“I don’t even remember taking the photo. But I can tell by the look of my face that it was a joke. That was funny then, for like a minute. Looking at it in the context of my life now, it’s not funny,” he then goes to explain about the context in which the photo was taken, which featured him in a military cap doing the Nazi salute. Below are two videos with more excerpts from the interview with ABC’s Nightline, the first one that Jesse James agreed to give ever since the scandal broke.
Jesse James on divorce and rehab
Jesse James on the Nazi pic, being a racist