i'll ask her what casey's really like. and what she'll do when she goes free this sunday. also tonight, hugh hefner. live and world exclusive. remember this? and i think you've got a scoop for me. you're going to reveal the date of the wedding. >> the date of the wedding, can i tell him? >> sure. >> it is june 18th. >> june the 18th this year, saturday. >> sadly, we know how that worked out. hef breaks his silence on the runaway bride. and he'll be introducing me to his new loves. this is "piers morgan tonight." casey anthony will be a free woman in days. sunday she'll be released after being found not guilty in the death of her 2-year-old daughter caylee. joining me now is the woman who was at her side throughout that infamous trial. attorney dorothy clay sims. when i say infamous, it's attracting so much attention. so much speculation. and as you will be very aware, a lot of negativity towards your client. what was your overview? were you even remotely surprised at the verdict? >> well, i feared for the worst and hoped for the best. that was how i went into the courtroom when we were told it was time for the verdict to be read. there were a lot of emotions that were washing over me at that time. i can't even begin to explain. overwhelming gratitude, i think, for the system. for our system of justice. for those jurors who listen so attentively. they were very, very present during that trial. and i am ashamed for those people that are attacking those jurors. and i'm really shocked. and disappointed at the people who have lashed out at the jurors who were present, who sat there, who watched. i think that's wrong. and i feel bad for the people, you know. >> i think it is bad for the justice -- certain lit jurors seemed for the most reasonable expert legal opinion that i've spoken to, the jurors had little choice in the end in terms of the law. let me ask you about the personal side of this. because you spent so much time with casey anthony, both in the courtroom and outside of it. you know her very well. she's been very demonized. there's no question of that. by the american public. a lot of that based on their own views of what they think happened. what kind of woman is she, do you think? how would you summarize her? >> the best way to summarize her is to parrot the testimony that was actually given in the trial. the two individuals, for example, who worked in the jail with her, they saw day in and day out for years, they described her as kind. they described her as respectful. and not angry, not cruel. the people that knew her before she was arrested, there were a number of witnesses that were provided by the state that described her as loving, as kind, as mothering to her friends, as a good mother, an amazing mother. those were the people that the state produced to testify in this case. and that, that is the person, those are the characteristics that i saw. >> let me ask you, are you a mother, dorothy? >> yes. >> could you ever imagine a scenario where one of your children went missing and for 31 days you didn't report it? >> actually, that is an excellent question. because the question was phrased, could you imagine? the grief expert, the trauma expert, who testified in the trial, explained that people respond -- everyone responds differently to a traumatic situation. so we cannot possibly imagine how someone else might feel. and i think it's even difficult to imagine how we ourselves might react to a traumatic situation. i've been receiving communications from a number of people who had been in situations, very traumatic situations, and they felt validated by the testimony of the expert. because someone was explaining their responses, their reactions. they felt -- they felt that perhaps they weren't understood until she explained that everyone responds differently to that. so the key -- >> look, i mean, one of the reasons that i think she's attracting so much negativity is that i don't know anybody, however traumatic the incident would be -- and this is my problem with the case -- who would not report a missing very young child for over a month. and even worse, it seemed to me, go partying in that period. because, you know, how traumatic is it if you're able to actually go partying? i mean, it seemed to me very, very, very strange behavior. and i can't get a rational reason for it. i can hear all the experts tell me about post-trauma and all the rest of it. can you honestly imagine anybody that you knew who's a mother ever behaving like that? approximate. >> i think the key word that you just said is rational. i think any reaction to trauma isn't necessarily going to be rational. you can't say, all right, this event occurred and this is how i expect you to behave. i think that you can't do that. and she explained that. she explained, i think, retail therapy. she explained how younger people respond differently than older people. there is no way to predict or explain how someone can react. so i think she was the best person to really answer that question. >> when the verdict came in, i felt that one of the main reasons, actually, why this became a kind of caricature trial with baddies and goodies and so on was the fact there were cameras in there. what is your view of trial by television? because we don't have it, for example, where i come from in britain. and it seems that without the cameras we don't lose anything. but you do lose something here in america. because it tends to turn these trials into a soap opera. >> well, you know, i believe in freedom of speech. i believe in so much that surrounds that. but i will tell you personally, i found it very awkward and disturbing. for example, i would be having conversations and in the evening i would see that there were lip readers and people who were body language experts going on television saying this was what appears to have been said, this is what was meant when this attorney moved this way, my client turned her head a certain way. imagine being on television for 400 or 500 hours of a trial. it's incredibly stressful. and i think also very stressful for the witnesses who knew that as they spoke, every word they said was being televised. and i think it couldn't help but affect maybe not so much what they said but how they said it. i found it extremely, extremely difficult. >> tell me this, dorothy. what is your gut feeling about what happened to caylee anthony? >> well, i think that the key here, in my opinion, is was the state able to prove that casey murdered her daughter, and did they meet the burden of proof? and the response is, no. the jury -- i believe those though have spoken have come back and said, who, what, where, when, how? that's really the key. there wasn't anything linking casey to the scene where the remains were found. in fact, the testimony indicated that some of the botanical evidence at the scene, it was not found in her car. there was -- >> tell me something. do you believe personally that she drowned in the swimming pool and there was a cover-up? is that what you personally believe? >> i believe that this was an accident that snowballed out of control. and i think that if you think about things rationally, when you have someone who's presented as a good mother by the state's expert, there was no motive. i think some of the jurors were really grappling with that one. there wasn't any relationship there with a motive why she would do this, when it would occur, how it would occur. yes, i believe it was an accident that snowballed out of control. and i think that the jury, when they came back with the not guilty verdicts, did so because they had a lot of questions. and i think having questions that weren't answered, i think that may be some of the hue and cry that we may be seeing in the public. >> obviously on sunday, your client comes out of prison. and she'll be looking to rebuild her life in an atmosphere of pretty extreme animosity towards her. are you concerned about her ability to lead a free life in relative safety? >> i am concerned for her. but i would hope that as time passes, more compassion would be the feeling of the day. and that she would be -- her privacy would be respected. along with those of the jurors. and anyone else. witnesses affiliated with the case. everyone having to do with the case. i would hope that they would be respected. so that would be my hope for her. >> i watched an interview with joy behar last night that you did in which she asked you directly, would you be happy for casey to be a babysitter to your children? i have to say your answer was not immediate. and seemed a little uncertain. do you want to clarify it? >> well, i went into the case, i was asked to come and donate my time for free, to work on this case, to work on the science aspect. i wasn't asked to come in to determine or find a babysitter for adult children. there was a disconnect. that wasn't my roam. and the casey -- >> but you know where she was getting at, what she was getting at is, yes, she's coming free on sunday, casey, but clearly her behavior after whatever happened happened was so irrational to most people's eyes that she would be deemed by most people now to be a threat -- not a threat so much as a risk around young children. would you accept that? >> well, i think before you determine someone is a risk, you have to take the time to understand them. you have to spend time with them. and you have to understand yourself the basis for the behavior. and i don't think that they can judge that behavior. they can say, i know why she did this, i understand. so the real issue for me is as my role in this case is, was there evidence? was there a problem with some of the forensic evidence? that was my focus. and the 31 days had nothing to do with whether or not she was guilty. it had nothing to do with that. and i think the jurors' response, those jurors that have come forward and spoken about that, have discussed that. i think that's -- >> you would accept -- i mean, can i throw that one back at you one more time? because it seems to me key to trying to understand this case. i mean, have you ever heard of or been involved with any case like this in your life where a mother has not reported a child missing for over 30 days? >> well, the responses that i've gotten back from the people that have experienced trauma, actually, there were several responses that talked about situations where they pretended the individual in their life had not really died. so there are -- i think it may be more common, that reaction, that type of reaction, that you realize. and that's why the grief expert, she had 40,000 hours involved in dealing with reactions to trauma. she treated people for free for years. she had a book on the subject. and she i believe explained, we can't predict that. we can't know. >> dorothy clay sims, thank you very much indeed. monday i'll talk to the woman who fought on this case, nancy grace. hugh hefner breaks his silence on the runaway bride. and he reveals his new loves. 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[♪...] >> male announcer: now, for a limited time, your companion flies free, plus save up to 65%. call 1-800-sandals. conditions apply. hugh hefner certainly knows how to bounce back in style. it was just a month ago he was left jilted at the altar by runaway bride of crystal harris. hef's arrived in my studio with not one but two delightful new girlfriends bringing a smile to his face at this difficult time. hef, welcome back. >> thank you. >> i can't quite believe what has happened to you. just start with one thing, you're alive. because twitter early this week was actually trending i think worldwide at one stage with the fact that you had kicked the bucket. >> yes. it's been a very interesting month. >> but you can confirm you're alive. >> what's that? >> you can confirm you're alive? >> i'm alive, yes. i think the big confirmation for this month is i didn't die and i didn't get married. it's a one-two shot. >> what is it like when you read about your own death on twitter? i haven't had that experience yet. did you find it funny? was it a bit disconcerting? >> my response was, you know, it happened to mark twain so i quoted mark twain's comment, that rumors of his death demise were greatly exaggerated. >> let's move back to when you were last in my studio. because we had -- >> it was only yesterday. >> it was a great interview. crystal was with you and everything seemed absolutely happy. there seemed no reason why this wasn't going to be a great hollywood wedding. you very kindly invited me. i was looking forward to it and everything else. what happened? that's what everybody wants to know. the first television interview you've given. what went wrong? >> well, you know, that is the number one question. and i don't have an answer for it. i really don't know what happened. i think that in time, the rest of the story will play out. but -- we took a trip to london -- i think the real problems began a couple of months before the wedding was set. when we were talking about -- when the lawyers got into it. we were talking about the prenup and et cetera. and we went to london about five or six months -- weeks before. and things did not seem quite the way they ought to be. she was preparing to -- a song for the first time. and i think her focus was on that. but in the weeks immediately afterward, as we got very close to the marriage, you know, something was not right. but i didn't see it coming. i mean, i truly didn't see it coming. >> the skeptics, you know, were saying, come on, hef, you're 85, she was 25. how was this ever going to work as a marriage? playboy girl, yes. but not as a genuine marriage. i was surprised that you had taken the plunge again at 85. i mean, what do you say to the skeptics who said this was never -- never had a chance? >> i think it's a very valid question. i think quite frankly now, the day after, i'm asking myself the same thing. you know. where was my head? i did it -- i made the commitment, quite frankly, because i felt that i had -- in a previous relationship with holly not been there for her in the way that she wanted me to be. and i just wanted to do whatever would make the relationship work. and you know, i was ready to settle down. i figured it was about time. but on another level i must say, quite frankly, the following monday, i woke up and i was single. and i thought, this is the natural way of things. that i ought to be single. >> when was the exact moment you knew that she was not going to go through with the wedding? >> well, the previous weekend. she and i went to the jazz festival. when we got back from the festival, we sat down. and she said that she was really have something serious reservations about the marriage. not about the relationship but about the marriage. and i said, look, the marriage is not the important part to me, the relationship's the important -- if you are happier single, that's okay with me, we can work out the details. that was only half the story, obviously. because the following morning, without my knowledge, she was packing the bags. >> when did you find out that she was doing that? >> on sunday night. we started our sunday movie. and during the movie, early in the movie, she stepped out to apparently go to the bathroom. when the film was over, i realized she was gone. and it was just the following -- i tried to reach her. supposedly she had gone to san diego to her mother's. i was not able to reach her there. and i have some reason to suspect she did not go to san diego. that's part of the story i don't know details on. >> let me are harsh about crystal. do you think she took you for a ride? >> i think an argument could be made she took me for a ride. but i must say, quite frankly, it was a pretty nice ride. it was 2 1/2 very good years. and if she was faking it, she did it very well. she certainly convinced me that she was -- i wouldn't even kind of play at the possibility of marriage if i didn't think that she was really, really committed to me. so, you know. if she was fooling, and a good case can be made that she was, she did a very good job. >> has she got any money out of this? >> yes, but not as much as she would have if she'd married me. >> how much has she walked away with? >> well, she asked for a bentley right before we split. so she got the car. she got the ring. she didn't have to get it. you know. as a matter of fact, to her credit -- >> how much was the ring? >> the ring was -- i'm not sure exactly. the ring was i would say around $60,000, $70,000. but to her credit, we had a dog. have a dog. charlie. and i love the dog. she brought it back. felt that i missed it more than she did. >> so she kept the diamond ring and the bentley -- >> the point is -- >> you get the dog. sounds a fairly -- >> i gave her the ring. >> did she get any cash out of you? on top? >> a little but not a great deal. yeah. as i say, she would have gotten a good deal more if she'd gotten married. >> that's the strange thing. if he was just a gold digger, why wouldn't she just go through with the wedding and then leave you? because she would then be lawfully married to you. >> yes, exactly so. >> you're a smart guy, what does your gut instinct tell you? >> that there's more that we don't know. i think there is at least one other guy in the picture. i think there's something more we don't know. and i think that maybe as she got -- i think that the career was more important to her than she let on. and i think as a matter of fact we were in london, she was thinking more about the song than -- >> you've laughed it off and you've been pretty courageous about it. but on a human level it must have been embarrassing for you. i mean -- >> not for a moment was it embarrassing. i was, you know -- for a moment potentially devastated. but i got such a remarkable emotional support from friends and former girlfriends. holly, bridget, and kendra were all there. you know. the next day. >> if you ever had your heart broken before? >> what's that? >> have you ever had your heart broken before? >> oh, yes, absolutely. i think if you wear your heart on your -- i'm a romantic. absolutely. and i 30 that is part of what it's all about. i think that if you don't to some extent wear your heart on your sleeve you're the less for it. sure. >> i want to play you on clip. she went on ryan seacrest's show after she jilted you, effectively. she said the following. listen to this and see what you make of what she said. >> is he heartbroken? >> i mean, he's okay. he's okay. you know, you know, hef's lifestyle isn't the most normal lifestyle. and that's the kind of thing also. i'm like -- you know, this isn't the lifestyle for me. you know, multiple girls around all the time. you know, the playboy lifestyle. i don't know. i don't know. it just -- i don't know. i just wanted to be true to myself. and he's fine. >> i mean, look, forgive me if i laugh. >> i agree. >> the idea crystal didn't know what she was getting into. >> beyond that, most