Melissa Benoist Bravely Reveals She Was In a Domestic Abuse Relationship In New Video

Melissa Benoist is bravely opening up about her own experience with domestic violence.

The Supergirl star shared a video on her Instagram Stories this afternoon (November 27) about the circumstances and why she’s coming forward now.

“I am a survivor of domestic violence, or IPV, intimate partner violence,” the video starts, before Melissa reveals more details of the relationship.

She describes her relationship as a “runaway freight train” and that the abuse began as emotional manipulation, and that her partner was often jealous, looked at her devices, got angry when she spoke to other men.

“Work in general was a touchy subject,” Melissa shares. “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 and friendships, because I didn’t want to hurt him.”

She also shares that she kept the violence she experienced a secret out of shame, fear of again being abused and reluctance to admit it was happening to her.

“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 he wall so hard the drywall broke, choked…deep down I never believed he would change, I just fooled myself into thinking I could help him… Someone had to let him know his behavior wasn’t OK, and who better than the one he was taking it out on?”

Melissa shared the video in hopes of giving more abused women and men hope.

“I want those statistics to change, and I hope that telling my story will prevent more stories like this from happening,” she says. “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.”

Melissa just recently married Chris Wood this fall.