Domestic violence can happen to anyone, and when it does, no matter who it is, it is heartbreaking. We hardly need to be reminded about the urgency of this very dangerous issue, but quite a few of our favorite celebrities have survived abusive relationships and have publicly opened up about it. It is not an easy subject to discuss. It is so private and often traumatizing that sharing your story with the whole world takes a lot of courage.
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It is so brave of these celebrities to share their stories, and by doing so they are helping other women who have experienced similar situations. It is important to have these discussions openly to remind survivors that they are not alone and that they can get out of this. Here's a look at a few stars who have managed to survive an ongoing problem that still affects millions of people today.
Ninel Conde said she suffered violence at the hands of her ex.
The singer said that she was the victim of physical violence at the hands of her ex Giovanni Medina, who is also the father of her son. The couple were having a dispute regarding the custody of their child, and during an interview in May 2020, she opened up about the troubles in their relationship and the emotional and physical abuse she said she endured. "Now I understand that I was a woman enduring violence, a woman who lived with threats, that I lived humiliated, pushed down. Everything I did with my job was bad. He took me away from everyone, he was a narcissistic person," she said, adding, "Yes, of course, there was physical aggression."
Melissa Benoist shared her story in front of thousands.
Melissa Benoist opened up about the awful things she went through and the intimate partner violence she endured during one of her relationships, without mentioning who the partner was. "I learned what it felt like to be pinned down and slapped repeatedly, punched so hard I felt the wind go out of me, dragged by my hair across pavement, head-butted, pinched until my skin broke, slammed against the wall so hard the drywall broke, choked," the Supergirl star shared on Instagram in November 2019. At first, she said she hid the reason for her injuries from nurses, police, and loved ones to protect her then-partner, but she said that the more people she let in, the more protected she felt. She ended the relationship after one particular incident in which she said he threw an iPhone at her face, tearing her iris and nearly rupturing her eyeball—which she says has altered her vision forever. He also broke her nose. "None of this is salacious news, it was my reality. What I went through caused a tectonic shift in my outlook on life. I want those statistics to change, and I hope that telling my story will prevent more stories like this from happening," the actress shared. "If you are enduring what I went through and you see this, you might be able to find the tiny straw that will break the camel's back."
Eileen Moreno shared videos and photos of altercations with ex-boyfriend Alejandro Garcia.
Eileen Moreno seemed to have lived through a complete nightmare at the hands of boyfriend Alejandro Garcia. The Colombian actress took to Instagram to open up about a domestic violence incident, in which she claims the actor left her bloody after hitting her in the face. She shared photos and videos of the incident, and the images of the injuries looked terrifying.
Kate del Castillo shocked us when we learned she was a survivor.
The Mexican actress is usually pretty private when it comes to her romantic life, so we were pretty surprised when she shared her heartbreaking story with the YouTube channel Real Women Real Stories, a platform dedicated to raising awareness about hardships women face. The physical abuse was so bad she felt like a prisoner. "Then he started touching me, hitting me, and kicking me. He tried to choke me many times. And there were times I couldn't go out with my friends, I couldn't go see my parents. I was pretty much kidnapped," she said regarding one of her ex-husbands. "Women: We don't need to apologize for anything."
Jennifer Lopez had an abusive relationship with ex-husband Marc Anthony.
In her memoir True Love, she revealed how she felt abuse in her marriage and shares the moment when she realized she needed to get out. "As I sat there getting made up, my heart was beating out of my chest and I felt like I couldn't breathe…I became consumed with anxiety," she wrote. "I've never gotten a black eye or a busted lip, but I've felt abused in one way or another: mentally, emotionally, verbally. I know what it feels like for your soul to be diminished by the way your loved one is treating you."
Halle Berry uses her experience to help other women who are victims of abuse.
The actress has spoken up about being in a very physically abusive relationship that caused her to lose about 80% of her hearing in one ear due to a gruesome beating. Though she's never confirmed it, it's speculated that her abuser was ex-husband David Justice. "I never had to run to a shelter, but I did choose the wrong partners. Not always good men. Luckily, in recent years, I have been smart enough to hit the door when violence even becomes a possibility. That is something I will not tolerate," she said back in 2009.
Mariah Carey claims she was abused by ex Tommy Mottola.
"I just think you get into a situation and you feel locked in. For me to really get out of it was difficult because there was a connection that was not only a marriage, but a business where the person was in control of my life," she said.
Rihanna doesn’t want to be reminded of it.
Rihanna opened up about her abusive relationship with Chris Brown in a 2015 interview with Vanity Fair. "It's not a subject to sweep under the rug, so I can't just dismiss it like it wasn't anything, or I don't take it seriously,” she said. "But, for me, and anyone who's been a victim of domestic abuse, nobody wants to even remember it. Nobody even wants to admit it. So to talk about it and say it once, much less 200 times, is like…I have to be punished for it? It didn't sit well with me."
Jasmine V has been pretty honest about her experience.
The singer opened up about being in an abusive relationship and even wrote about it in her blog back in 2012. "I was involved in an abusive and dangerous relationship," she wrote. "I was in this relationship for a year and a half and that was one of the most painful times in my life."
Evelyn Lozada has taken a hard stand against domestic violence.
Her ex-husband, Chad Ochocinco (now Johnson), head-butted her after a heated fight, and she immediately left him after that and filed for divorce. "Domestic violence is not okay and hopefully me taking a stand will help encourage other women to break the silence as well. I'm grateful to my family, friends and fans for the outpouring of support during this difficult time," she said in an official statement.
Kim Kardashian was abused in her first marriage.
She doesn't talk about it much these days, but Kim Kardashian has opened up about her very abusive first marriage before. "He punched me in the face and told me I needed liposuction," she said in court documents.
April Lee Hernández became an activist after abuse.
The actress and author was in an abusive relationship at 19. "I thought he was going to kill me…he beat me up. He was physically, emotionally abusive," she told Latina.com. She even wrote a book to encourage victims to reach out for help called, Your Voice, Your Choice: My Story of Resiliency and Success.
Jaslene Gonzalez has spoken out against domestic violence many times.
The America’s Next Top Model season eight winner has not only shared her own story of being in an abusive relationship but also partnered with Liz Claiborne and the National Domestic Violence Hotline for the campaign, "Love Is Not Abuse." Her relationship literally could have cost her her life. "I thought I was going to die. I really lost my breath…I was trying too hard to get him off of me. But then it just came to the point where he let me go."
