Two women who fought for years to expose Lance Armstrong’s doping scandal speak out on how it affected their own lives - Betsy Andreu and Emma Oâ��Reilly, who were once in the disgraced athletes inner circle, were long crucified for trying to reveal the truth

Their lives were turned upside down in their pursuit to reveal to the world the truth. Now, with Lance Armstrong’s legacy in tatters, Betsy Andreu and Emma O’Reilly finally feel vilified.

But in their efforts to reveal the extent of Armstrong’s deceit, their lives were profoundly affected.

In a report on Thursday night’s “Rock Center with Brian Williams”, Betsy who used to be a close friend of Armstrong, along with her husband Frankie, reveals how she was called “unhinged, crazy and hateful” but she notes that she was never called a liar.

She likens Armstrong to Bernie Madoff, saying he was ”the biggest fraud in sports history”. She also calls him a “sad” and “vengeful person”.

Harry Smith, also interviewed Emma O’Rilley for the report, where she reveals she was facing financial ruin following her revelations in the book LA Confidentiel: Les Secrets de Lance Armstrong, She was sued for a million pounds for claims and description of Armstrong’s doping involvement. (Emma was once the US Postal Service cycling team’s soigneur and one of her tasks was to deliver drugs to Armstrong). She said her efforts to expose the truth brought her nothing but shame and scandal.

Both women’s accusations were met with the retort that they were “crazy” and they claim that the media didn’t help them as they were “quite happy with what they were seeing” (with reference to Armstrong’s clean winning streak). Emma adds that there was a time when she doubted herself because nobody believed her.

But in the end, the truth did prevail as we have seen in recent weeks.

Watch the report here