(NewsNation) — Lori Vallow Daybell, the woman who was convicted in 2023 for conspiring to kill her children, has spoken out for the first time in an interview with NBC “Dateline.”
Daybell, 51, was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for conspiring to commit first-degree murder and grand theft by deception for the killings of her children, Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan.
Daybell, known as “Doomsday Mom,” said the media’s portrayal of her during the trial was off-base, and she denied any wrongdoing in the 2019 deaths.
“We all know what the media does,” Lori told NBC “Dateline” correspondent Keith Morrison. “They exaggerate everything, and they make stuff up, and they twist things around. So, I don’t know how it became what it is today. It’s amazing to me.”
Lori Vallow Daybell says she is misunderstood
Daybell described herself as misunderstood during the interview, saying, “How do you know a person if you’ve never talked to them in five years? How do you know anything about them? How do you know anything about their life, how it really is?”
FILE – Lori Vallow Daybell stands and listens as the jury’s verdict is read at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, May 12, 2023. The trial of Chad Daybell, the man charged with the deaths of his wife and his girlfriend’s two youngest children, is set to begin in Idaho on Monday, April 1, 2024, serving as a second act in a bizarre case that has drawn worldwide attention and already resulted in a life sentence for the kids’ mother, Lori Vallow Daybell. (AP Photo/Kyle Green, File) 
FILE – Lori Vallow Daybell sits during her sentencing hearing at the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, Monday, July 31, 2023. Vallow Daybell, who was sentenced to life in an Idaho prison for the murders of her two youngest children and another woman, is now in an Arizona jail on charges related to another slaying, authorities said Thursday, Nov. 30. (Tony Blakeslee/EastIdahoNews.com via AP, Pool, File) 
Lori Vallow Daybell sits between her attorneys and looks at notes during her sentencing hearing at the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, Monday, July 31, 2023. (Tony Blakeslee/EastIdahoNews.com via AP, Pool) 
Lori Vallow Daybell talks with her lawyers before the jury’s verdict is read at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho on Friday May 12, 2023. The Idaho jury convicted Daybell of murder in the deaths of her two youngest children and a romantic rival, a verdict that marks the end of a three-year investigation that included bizarre claims of zombie children, apocalyptic prophesies and illicit affairs. (AP Photo/Kyle Green) 
FILE – Lori Vallow Daybell sits in a police car after a hearing at the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, on Aug. 16, 2022. The sister of Tammy Daybell, who was killed in what prosecutors say was a doomsday-focused plot, told jurors Friday, April 28, 2023, that her sister’s funeral was held so quickly that some family members couldn’t attend. The testimony came in the triple murder trial of Vallow Daybell, who is accused along with Chad Daybell in Tammy’s death and the deaths of Vallow Daybell’s two youngest children. (Tony Blakeslee/East Idaho News via AP, Pool, File) 
New mugshots of “Doomsday Mom” Lori Vallow were released by Madison County Sheriff’s office after she was found guilty of killing her two children and conspiring to kill her husband’s first wife. 
FILE – A boy looks at a memorial for Tylee Ryan and Joshua “JJ” Vallow in Rexburg, Idaho, on June 11, 2020. The investigation started roughly 29 months ago with two missing children. It soon grew to encompass five states, four suspected murders and claims of an unusual, doomsday-focused religious beliefs involving “dark spirits” and “zombies.” On Monday, April 10, 2023, an Idaho jury will begin the difficult task of deciding the veracity of those claims and others in the triple murder trial of Lori Vallow Daybell. (John Roark/The Idaho Post-Register via AP, File) 
She also denied being present when her children were killed by her brother, Alexander Cox, on the alleged orders of Daybell and her husband, Chad. She was also confident that she and Chad, who was convicted on all charges in 2024, would be proven innocent.
She told NBC “Dateline,” “After I get exonerated, maybe I’ll go on ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ and you can come.”
Lori Vallow Daybell acting as own attorney in upcoming trial
Daybell, who pleaded not guilty to accusations that she conspired to kill her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, with her brother Alex, said she is feeling “great” about being her own attorney in the upcoming trial. Alex died of natural causes at the end of 2019 and was never charged, according to E Online.
She did admit, however, that acting as a lawyer has been a “difficult thing to do.”
Jury selection for the trial on Charles Vallow’s shooting is scheduled to start on March 31, 2025.