Lance Armstrong publicly admitted to doping to Oprah Winfrey last week, rattling not only fans but longtime friends like Matthew McConaughey. Speaking from the Sundance Film Festival over the weekend, McConaughey -- a fellow Texan and athlete -- told MTV News that hearing the disgraced cyclist's confession made him angry at first.
Here is an excerpt of what McConaughey told the cameras from Park City, Utah:
"My first reaction was I was pissed off. I was mad. I then got kind of sad for him. First off, I had a part of me that took it kind of personally, which I think a lot of people have … What I realized is that those of us that took that personally, like, 'Oh, he lied to me!' That's not true. What I mean by this is, what was he supposed to do? Call me to the side and go, 'Hey man, I did it but don't tell anybody.' Then I would have really had a reason to be pissed off at him, going, 'You want me to walk around holding this?'"
"Where I am now is I've put myself out of the way and I am happy for this guy, who has now chosen to re-enter this new chapter of his life a truly free man. And the weight he had on his shoulders, without the bogeyman under the bed, the skeleton in the closet that he's carried for 14 years. Fourteen years he lied and carried the lie with him. Some people are never going to forgive him. You know the old line that Oprah said the other night, 'The truth will set you free'? Yeah, but she forgot one part. It's miserable in the beginning. And it's going to be miserable. But he's looking it in the eye, and he'll handle it. He'll deal. And he's ready for how hard it's going to be to deal."
McConaughey isn't the only famous face to have spoken out in the aftermath of Armstrong's public confession. Ex-fiancée Sheryl Crow, who dated the cyclist from 2003 to 2006, expressed similar sentiments to "ET," saying: “I think that honesty is always the best bet and that the truth will set you free." She added that "to carry around a weight like that would be devastating in the long run."
For the full interview, watch the video clip below, or click through to MTV.com.
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