Joanne Lees also has attacked the media for its "lurid" portrayals of her and of almost accusing her of her partner's murder.
Ms Lees hid in the bush to escape a gunman who murdered Falconio and tried to abduct her after flagging down their campervan near Barrow Creek in the Northern Territory on July 14, 2001.
She has now written a book about her ordeal, to be released in Australia on October 6, in order to "satisfy" people's curiosity.
In a podcast for The Times newspaper the 33-year-old reads from the first pages of her book No Turning Back, saying: "I was almost raped and murdered and the life that I thought I was going to have was stolen from me.
"On a lonely stretch of outback highway, a stranger murdered the man I loved and forever changed the way I would see the world."
Ms Lees said since that night she has been the focus of "intense" public and media attention.
"People get murdered in Australia every day, but for some reason the murder of my boyfriend ... generated massive and continuous interest. Others have their opinions about that night, about what happened, about what I did or didn't do," she said.
"But they weren't there. They can never know what I saw, the terror I felt, or what Pete and I meant to each other," she added.
Drug runner Bradley Murdoch was found guilty last December of murdering Falconio and of assaulting and depriving Lees of her liberty. Murdoch was sentenced to mandatory life, with an appeal set for December.
Ms Lees, who is a support worker from Brighton, East Sussex, said: "On my journey from that night to now, I have been spied on, lied to and exploited by people pretending to have my best interests at heart.
"I have been portrayed in the most lurid way in the press, and all but accused of murder.
"I found myself criticised for wanting to grieve in private. It stunned me. While I maintained a necessary silence, my family, my friends and I endured a long list of upsetting untruths about me in the press.
"How could I speak openly and frankly when anything I said might be misconstrued or misreported and so jeopardise the trial?"
In the book, which is being serialised in The Times, she also speaks about Falconio, from Huddersfield: "I am writing for Peter ... his name has been in constant use, but most people have never stopped to consider the person he was.
They have forgotten that the trial was about his murder and the seeking of justice for him."