Michelle Knight, one of three women who were held captive in a Cleveland house before escaping a year ago today says she has forgiven her captor.

Today.com is reporting that while being interviewed on NBC’s Today show, Knight said her captor, the now deceased Ariel Castro, 53, deserved forgiveness because this is what she would want if she did wrong.

“If I did something wrong, even if it was a small thing, I would want somebody to forgive me so I can forgive him for what he done wrong because that’s the way of life,” she told Today’s Savannah Guthrie.

Knight, 33, was held captive by Castro along with Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, along with Amanda Berry’s child who was fathered by Castro. The women were sexually, physically, and mentally abused for nearly 11 years before a neighbor heard them calling for help on May 6, 2013 and brought police to the nondescript house in Cleveland where they were being held.

Knight suffered so horrifically at Castro’s hand that she was left with hearing damage and facial injuries after years of beatings. She was also impregnated four or five times and beaten until she miscarried.

Castro pleaded guilty in August to hundreds of charges but committed suicide while in prison.

“He was a human being,” Knight told Guthrie, “and every human being deserves to be loved, even though they did something wrong.”

Before her kidnap in August of 2002, she had lost custody of her son, Joey, who was placed for adoption and is now 14 years old. Knight told Guthrie it was thoughts of her son that kept her going. Although the boy’s adoptive family have not revealed to the boy who his mother is, they have sent Knight pictures to let her see how well he is doing.

Knight, who has lost contact with the other two women who shared her plight, has written a memoir, Finding Me, released today, in which she tells of the abuse she suffered at Castro’s hands.

As for now, she has changed her name to Lily Rose Lee to mark the beginning of a new life which she describes as “awesome”.

“I don’t take things for granted anymore not even the little things like looking out a window,” she told People. “I went through years of torture, and now I’m back. I’m free to fly.”

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