For the first time ever, So You Think You Can Dance judge Mary Murphy has publicly discussed being the victim of a nine-year-long abusive relationship with her former husband.
So brave of her!
Murphy revealed that her ex began raping and beating her only three months after their wedding, and the abuse carried on for nine more years until she gathered up the courage to leave the abuser.
Mary recalled when the physical abuse began:
We’d had another jealous fight, screaming, crashing over furniture, and he said, “I want to have sex.”
I was like, “Are you kidding me?! We’re fighting here!” He said, “You’re my wife, and you’ll do what I tell you!”
I pulled out a kitchen knife and screamed, “You’re going to have to stab me, because I’m not having sex with you!” He knocked it out of my hands, held me down and raped me.
God, how horrifying!
Murphy explained that over time she became numb to the abuse: “A fight, then rape, then presents: a dress, a diamond bracelet, earrings. In the first year or two, I’d fight back, but eventually, I’d just lie there. Get it over with, I thought. It’ll be quick anyway.”
Mary said she was too embarrassed to tell the police or the hospital for her injuries, but Murphy hit her all-time low in 1982 while pregnant with their child.
After entering her fourth month, Mary miscarried.
“My husband was disgusted, saying I murdered our baby, because I’d done some light dancing the night before,” she revealed. “I was sinking deeper and deeper at that point, just reeling into despair.”
It wasn’t until her ex-husband traveled back to the Middle East to visit his family and proposed to another woman that Mary was finally ready to leave the jerk.
“I faced him one more time to sign the papers, and then I never heard from him again,” Murphy bravely recalled.
Wow, what a story.
And hopefully an inspiration to those who are afraid to seek help!
[Image via WENN.]
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