Lorena Bobbitt speaks out 21 years after she sliced off her husband's penis as she reveals the incident didn't hurt her dating life and she now has a partner and daughter, 8



Lorena Bobbitt famously sliced off her husband's penis in 1993 with a kitchen knife as he slept - before driving away and throwing it into a field

Surgeons successfully reattached John Wayne Bobbitt's penis



She was found not guilty due to the abuse she suffered at his hands



The 44-year-old now has an eight-year-old daughter with her long-term partner and works in real estate in Virginia



She admitted that she felt bad about the incident in 1993



Lorena Bobbitt has revealed that despite famously slicing off her husband's penis two decades ago, she didn't have any trouble dating afterwards.

Speaking out 21 years after making international headlines, the 44-year-old has expressed her regret over the attack, while also revealing how she has moved on with her life since.

She is now living in Gainesville, Virginia, where she works in real estate, enjoys zumba and raises money for women's shelters. She has an eight-year-old daughter with her partner of 16 years.



'Believe it or not, I had quite a few gentlemen that wanted to date me,' she told NBC4, smiling.

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Revealed: Lorena Bobbitt, 44, is now a mother-of-one and working as a realtor living in Gainesville, Virginia, two decades after she famously sliced off her abusive husband's penis while he was in bed

In 1993, Ecuadorian-born Lorena was 24 and working as a manicurist in Manassas, Virginia while enduring physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her husband John Wayne Bobbitt.

On June 23, 1993, he returned from a night of drinking and started to row with his then-wife.



Lorena later told authorities that he raped her, but he was acquitted of the alleged attack.

After he fell asleep, she went out to the kitchen and picked up an eight-inch knife before returning to the bedroom and slicing off his penis. She says the night was 'a blur'.



Leaving him bleeding in their bed, she then jumped in the car and drove off, throwing the severed penis out of the window into a field.



Focus: Lorena, who uses her maiden name 'Gallo', has an eight-year-old daughter named Olivia

New loves: After the trial, she fell in love and has been with her partner - Olivia's father (left) - for 16 years But moments later, she realized the severity of what she had done and alerted 91 1. A painstaking search uncovered his penis before doctors worked for nine hours to reattach it. This year marks 20 years since she was found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. Jurors agreed an 'irresistible impulse' provoked by abuse led her to attack her husband. Speaking to NBC4 from her home, she said she felt bad for what she had done. 'It was done but it was not done on purpose,' she said. 'It's sad because domestic violence put me and my ex-husband in the hospital.' She said it took a lot of energy to pull herself away from that life - she and Bobbitt divorced in 1995 - but that she no longer see herself as a victim.

Trial: An emotional Lorena Bobbitt, left, and John Wayne Bobbitt, right, testify in her trial in January 1994



Attack: Dr. James T. Sehn, one of the surgeons who reattached the penis, holds a blurred photo of it in court

Lorena now uses her maiden name - Gallo - but said she still uses 'Bobbitt' while carrying out charity work for shelters so that people recognize her.

'I use that name, the Lorena Bobbitt name, to help others,' she said. 'Something good has to come out of this tragedy like mine.'

She and Olivia also deliver Easter baskets and Christmas gifts to families in need, and she proudly says she wants her daughter to realize 'Working together as a team we can help others.'

She has a great group of female friends who 'don't judge anybody [and] don't judge me.'

After recently googling herself her main complaint was her birthday was wrong.



She is 44, proud, and fitter than ever after a recent 20lb weight loss



Moving on: Following the high-profile court case, John Wayne Bobbitt went on to star in porn films Back on screens: Bobbitt is pictured right on a special 'Where Are They Now?' episode of The View in 2011

Her ex-husband found that the surgeons' work to reattach his severed pens had been a success and he starred in a few porn movies, including 'John Wayne Bobbitt Uncut'.

In an interview last year, Bobbitt, who also underwent a penis enlargement paid for by a radio show, claimed he had slept with around 70 women since the attack.

Speaking to The Sun, he said: 'Being the most famous man to have his penis chopped off does have its advantages. It definitely has not hurt my love life - in fact it improved it.'

But his celebrity lifestyle caught up with him and in 1994 he was jailed for 15 days for assaulting his then-fiance Kristina Elliott. They never married.



He went on to marry two other women - a businesswoman in 2001 to whom he was wed for just 23 days, and a woman in 2002, whom he was also accused of assaulting.



The marriage ended after two years.

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