Jaycee Dugard

Jaycee Dugard and her mom both spoke of hope in the wake of the kidnapping drama in Ohio, in which Amanda Berry and two other missing women were found.

Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were all abducted separately from 2002-04, only to be found alive and together Monday in a home in Cleveland.

Terry Probyn, Jaycee's mother, said of the truly remarkable story:

"Another miracle happened yesterday and three girls are alive and I feel the same joy and relief I felt when Jaycee was returned to me after 18 hellish years."

"We must never lose hope. Keeping hope alive is what got me through 18 years," she added in a speech at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

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Now 31, Jaycee Dugard, who had been kidnapped at age 11 and held prison for 18 years, appeared at her first public event since her ordeal this weekend.

Receiving the Inspiration Award at famed fashion designer-philanthropist Diane von Furstenberg's DVF Awards held at the United Nations, her words resonated.

"My name is Jaycee Dugard, and I want to say that because for a long time I wasn't able to say my name and so it feels good," she told the crowd.

"I am truly honored to be here tonight with all of these amazing women who have done and been through so much more than me."

Dugard, who had two children fathered by her kidnapper, got very emotional when she thanked her mother's unwavering support and faith.

"I have to say I felt her hope for many years and it gave me the strength to go on and live," the soft-spoken Dugard said. "And I did live."

"I have two beautiful daughters who I love with all my heart."

Oprah Winfrey herself presented the honor to Jaycee at the DVF Awards, dedicated to honoring women for continued leadership, strength and courage.

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Jaycee Dugard has filed a lawsuit against the federal government.

In the documents, the 31-year old who was held captive for 18 years by Phillip Garrido says authorities should have been monitoring this monster cloer, following his parole after serving time in jail for rape.

The failings on the part of federal agents to keep an eye on Garrido's home - where he imprisoned and raped Dugard, fathering two children with the teen during her time under his control - was "outrageous and inexcusable" reads the lawsuit.

Dugard is suing for an undisclosed amount and plans to donate 100 percent of all she received to the nonprofit organization she founded, The JAYC Foundation, Inc., which helps abduction victims and their families.

In June, Garrido and his wife were sentenced to multiple life sentences after pleading guilty to the incomprehensible crime.

I can walk in the next room and see my mom. I can decide to jump in the car and go to the beach with the girls. It's unbelievable, truly.

So says Jaycee Dugard in an interview with Diane Sawyer that airs Sunday on ABC's Primetime, as the woman who was kidnapped at the age of 11 and held captive for 18 years speaks out for the first time.

Jaycee Dugard Interview

In June, the man who kidnapped and raped Jaycee, Phillip Garrido, was sentenced to 431 years in prison. He's the father of Jaycee's two kids, and she tells Sawyer that she "didn't know" she was in labor prior to giving birth for the first time. Dugard was 14.

"She was beautiful," Jaycee says of her daughter. "I felt like I wasn't alone anymore. [I] had somebody else who was mine. I wasn't alone."

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Jaycee Lee Dugard's kidnapper Phillip Garrido was sentenced to 431 years in prison today. If only he could serve all of that and then some.

His wife Nancy also earned 36 years Thursday in a Placerville, Calif., courtroom. If nothing else, neither should enjoy another second of freedom.

The husband and wife both pleaded guilty to kidnapping Jaycee Dugard from a Lake Tahoe, Calif., bus stop when the poor girl was just 11.

Jaycee was held as a prisoner in their backyard for 18 years and was raped repeatedly, giving birth to two daughters over that time.

He impregnated Jaycee for the first time when she was just 13, and again at age 16 and she gave birth both times to daughters.

Since her miraculous discovery and escape, she lives with her mom and the two girls. You have to see this 2009 Jaycee Dugard photo.

Jaycee was not in the court for the sentencing, but her mother Terry Probyn read a statement from her before the sentencing: 

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Held against her will for a staggering 18 years in a dump that could almost literally be described as a hellhole, Jaycee Dugard somehow emerged unscathed.

Now, with the first Jaycee Dugard photo made public since she was found alive in August, the kidnapping victim is slowly  adjusting to her normal life again.

"I'm so happy to be back with my family," she said.

She is living in seclusion with her mom, Terry Probyn, and the two daughters – Angel, 15, and Starlit, 11 – fathered by her alleged kidnapper, Phillip Garrido.

Jaycee says she has begun the slow process of recovery by riding horses, cooking meals and is thinking of collaborating on a book about what she endured.

"They are living a surprisingly normal life, considering the circumstances," Terry's stepmother, Joan Curry, tells the celebrity news publication's interviewer.

We admire her strength and wish her nothing but the best.