The Olasky Interview preview - Donna Rice Hughes

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Next up on The World and Everything in It: an excerpt from The Olasky Interview. This week WORLD editor in chief Marvin Olasky talks with Donna Rice Hughes.

NICK EICHER, HOST: During the 1988 presidential campaign, Hughes gained unwanted notoriety. 

The media discovered and circulated photos of her sitting in the lap of presidential candidate Gary Hart, a married man, and front-runner for the Democratic nomination. 

The photo derailed his candidacy.

For Donna Rice Hughes, the story is a powerful testimony of second chances and forgiveness of sin in Christ.

DONNA RICE HUGHES: I was really thrown out to the press and without really, any cover. And what was really interesting, I had seen this man twice, but all that said, God had really been trying to get my attention prior to that. 

I always say it took an international sex scandal for God to get my attention because I was pretty stubborn. And um, so that’s just a warning. He will track you down. He will let things happen, you know, the natural consequences of our choices. But, you know, um, but he always wants to spare us that, I believe.

And so, it was like a year and a half of hell, to tell you the truth. I saw everything that I had wanted in some ways, like, uh, my own TV show, you know, and things like that. The chairman of CBS had seen me on Barbara Walters and said, “do you wanna do, um, drama, news, daytime, nighttime, whatever?” 

Another network wanted to buy my life story. And other people were trying to get me to write a book and Time magazine wanted me to be on their cover and then a lot of exploitive things. And then over here was God just saying, “come home.” And so I went, okay, you know, it’s it’s kind of now, or never. And so I started taking baby steps back to the Lord, believing and wanting the pain that I was going through, and that so many people were going through, to count for something. 

And there were no role models of women who had been in a situation like this who had made good choices, where their reputations were restored and redeemed and where God had used them in a powerful way. And the only role model I had was Chuck Colson. And so, I started, you know, my journey back to the Lord and really went underground for seven years and just disappeared.

REICHARD: That’s Donna Rice Hughes. You can hear this episode of The Olasky Interview today and learn how God used her painful past to launch her life’s work fighting the pornography industry. The Olasky Interview available wherever you get your podcasts.

(Photo/Lexey Swall, Genesis Photos)

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.