Earlier this year, Debby Ryan opened up about her experience being in an abusive relationship with a friend as part of Mary Kay‘s “Don’t Look Away” campaign.
In case you don’t remember, she detailed how a good friend of hers had been emotionally manipulating, and at one point, it even got physical.
Well, the former Disney starlet definitely received a lot of support for being so brave to speak out about it, but it was just recently she also admitted it hasn’t all been good.
Related: Debby Cuts A Fine Figure At The MTV Movie Awards!
In a new interview, the 22-year-old confessed:
“My first love texted me. I had been wanting to get a text from this person for a year saying that he wanted us to be okay and be friends, and the one that I get from them is, ‘How dare you speak about this abusive relationship? Because you know that people are going to think it’s about me.'”
It wasn’t the reaction she expected, as Debby explained:
“It automatically took me aback, like, Maybe I’m doing the wrong thing by being open and for sharing ├óΓé¼ΓÇ£ and how dare I be so selfish? Then I realized that there’s good and bad to anything that you do, [so I have] no regrets.”
And the brave beauty continued, saying of her abuser:
“I have a very, very strict do-not-talk-to-me policy for this person. He sent a five-page handwritten letter a few months after the campaign came out and was like, ‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize I had affected you in this way.’ What I realized is that when someone has a manipulative and insecure mind, that can physically hurt you, and lock you in rooms, and do things like that, it’s hard to reason with that person, and I realized that I don’t need that. I just don’t need this person in my life. I’ve gotten closure.”
We’re so proud of her for speaking out about it, and that’s why she continues to be a spokesperson for Mary Kay’s campaign against abusive relationships. Debby shared:
“I know what it’s like to feel trapped, and to find the value in yourself, and to find something worth fighting for. For me, a year later doing this campaign, not only have I seen a lot of education in myself, but also so many lives change. I couldn’t be happier to be still be going strong on this campaign.”
Hopefully she can help more men and women get help and get out of these kinds of horrible relationships.
[Image via WENN.]
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