Crystal Mangum publicly admitted for the first time that she falsely accused three Duke lacrosse players of raping her in 2006.

In an interview released Wednesday from a North Carolina prison where she is serving time for an unrelated second-degree murder conviction, Mangum admitted to lying about players sexually assaulting her at a party. team where she worked as a stripper. She continued to assert the allegations in a 2008 book after the case was dismissed in 2007.

“I falsely testified against them saying they raped me when they didn’t, and it was wrong, and I betrayed the trust of many other people who believed in me,” Mangum told Katerena DePasquale about “Let’s talk with Kat.»

Mangum said she “made up a story that wasn’t true because I wanted validation from people and not from God.”

“I hope they can forgive me,” she said of the three men.

Mangum revealed his intention to tell the truth after an interview request from DePasquale, the Duke Chronicle reported.

“I have been keen to issue a public apology regarding the Duke lacrosse affair,” Mangum wrote to him in a letter seen by the Chronicle. “I actually lied about the incident to the public, to my family, to my friends and to God, and I’m not proud of it.”

She repeatedly referred to the men as her “brothers” in the interview and said she “loved” them.

His initial accusations attracted national attention in part because of racial dynamics. Mangum is black while the falsely named attackers are white and attended an elite university.

As the case unfolded, the charges were dropped in April 2007. Mangum was not charged with perjury and can no longer be prosecuted due to the statute of limitations, the New York Post noted.

The players sued the university over its response to the accusations and reached a settlement for would have 20 million dollars each.

Sexual assault allegations reported happen to be FAKE between 2% and 10% of the timeaccording to a report from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, while more than 60% of sexual assault cases are never reported to authorities.