Supergirl star Melissa Benoist has posted an emotional Instagram video in which she opens up about being a survivor of domestic violence in a past relationship.
Warning: This article will contain descriptions of acts of domestic violence.
In a fifteen minute Instagram video, Melissa explains her story.
While she doesn’t name the partner who allegedly abused her, she does describe him as “charming, funny, manipulative, devious” and mentions that he was younger than she was at the time.
“I am a survivor of domestic violence or intimate partner violence, which is something I never thought I would say let alone be broadcasting into the ether.”
Melissa then says the violence began five months into the relationship, and described certain acts that were allegedly committed. She described the first incident of her partner throwing a smoothie at her face.
Melissa revealed a series of horrible acts that were allegedly done to her.
“The stark truth is 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, shoved against he wall so hard the drywall broke, choked,” she says in the video.
Melissa stated that following each incident, her partner would bring out “the typical abuser’s apology.”
She also revealed that over time she also became violent and fought back.
Melissa described an incident where her partner allegedly threw a phone at her face, which broke her nose and almost ruptured her eye, and explained that this was the final straw.
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“Something inside of me broke,” she explained.
“This was too far, I couldn’t flush this one down,” she said. “None of this is salacious news, it was my reality, what I went through caused a tectonic shift on my outlook on life.”
Melissa also revealed that this relationship affected her career, as he would get jealous if she had scenes involving other men.
“Work in general was a touchy subject, he didn’t want me ever kissing or even having flirtatious scenes with men which was very hard for me to avoid. So I began turning down auditions, job offers, test deals, friendship because I didn’t want to hurt him,” Melissa revealed.
Melissa said that she will be “healing” from these experiences for the rest of her life.
She shared the statistic that one in four women in the United States aged 18 and older will experience severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. “I want the statistics to change,” she said.
“I hope that telling my story might prevent more stories like mine from happening.”
You can watch her emotional video on her Instagram here .
If you or anyone you know is experiencing domestic violence, you can reach out to the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
