Buttafuoco: Stayed with husband for kids

NEW YORK, July 26 (UPI) -- Mary Jo Buttafuoco says she stayed with her husband Joey for years after she was shot in New York by his mistress, Amy Fisher, because of their children.

Buttafuoco, now 54 and living with her fiance in California, offers insights into the famed "Long Island Lolita" case in a new book titled "Getting It Through My Thick Skull," Newsday reported Saturday.

"At the beginning," Buttafuoco said, "I was just too sick to leave him."

"I stayed because my children had been through enough trauma. I stayed because I'm a Catholic."

Buttafuoco was shot in the head by Fisher on May 19, 1992, in Massapequa, N.Y., leaving her deaf in one ear and with partial jaw paralysis.

Buttafuoco and her husband separated in 2000 and divorced in 2003, leaving Buttafuoco with experience she now uses to advise others dealing with troubled individuals.

"When you can understand the behavior," she said, "you can break free from it and never look back."