‘Supergirl’ Melissa Benoist posts candid video sharing that she is a domestic violence survivor

Actress Melissa Benoist took to social media on November 27 and posted a 14-minute video that described in very personal detail that she was “a survivor of domestic violence, or IPV, intimate partner violence.”  Like many DV victims, the “Supergirl” star stayed in that relationship hoping she could salvage it, saying that the partner – who she never identified in the video – wasn’t really violent – at first.

“The abuse was not violent at first. At first it reared its head at me under guise of common dysfunction, coming from his insecurity and depression. He confided in me the tragedies that he had experienced, the injustices and the insecurities that he had been dealt. It was all very real and easy to sympathize.”

You can check out her Instagram video by clicking on the image below.

MSN reported that, in the video, Benoist shared that her partner got easily jealous when she was around other men and that he’d  “tell her to change her clothes so that others wouldn’t look at her and get upset when she would have to interact or have flirtatious scenes with a male co-worker.”

“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 and friendships, because I didn’t want to hurt him.”

Benoist fully opened up in that video and spoke candidly about her abuse and how it escalated so quickly, starting out as simple jealousy but turning into a violent relationship in the span of only five months. Eventually, she explained that she did fight back – only to realize – and experience first-hand “that violence begets violence.”

“The stark truth is I learned what it felt like to be pinned down and slapped repeatedly, punched so hard the wind was knocked out of me, dragged by my hair across pavement, head butted, pinched until my skin broke, shoved into a wall so hard the drywall broke, choked.”

“I learned to lock myself in rooms but quickly stopped because the door was inevitably broken down. I learned to not value any of my property—replaceable and irreplaceable. I learned not to value myself.”

“I have changed and I’m not proud of how I changed. I became a person I could have never imagined lurked inside of me. I was livid at what was happening and that fact that I was allowing it to out of the fear of failure.”

“I experienced firsthand that violence begets violence. I started fighting back because rage is contagious.”

“I developed an astonishing poker face. Inwardly I was the ugliest version of myself I had ever known. I became unreliable, unprofessional, sometimes unreachable.”

“There were stretches of weeks where I wouldn’t get out of bed for more than two hours a day. If you met me at this time, I was most likely friendly, just to the point of getting close and aloof to the point of getting cold.”

“Melissa in public put on a happy face and a healthy life, where as Melissa at home dropped the veneer and lived a nightmare in the middle of one never-ending dispute. Battle wounds and all.”

After a while, a friend of Benoist’s came right out and asked her, confidentially, if she was a victim of domestic violence.  And the actress credited that friend with opening her eyes to the situation she was in and how she would eventually free herself.

“Leaving was not a walk in the park. It is not an event, it’s a process. I felt complicated feelings of guilt for leaving and for hurting someone I had protected for so long, and yes, mournful feeling of leaving something familiar. But luckily, the people I let in, the more I was bolstered, I never lost the sense of clarity that kept telling me, ‘You do not deserve this.'”

“Breaking that cycle was the most rewarding, empowering choice I’ve ever made for myself. I feel an enduring strength.  I will be healing from this for the rest of my life.” 

In a separate Instagram post, Benoist wrote: “The long and winding road of healing and reconciliation has brought me to this moment where I feel strong enough to talk about my experience openly, honestly and without shame,” her post read. “By sharing my story, hopefully I can empower others to seek help and extricate themselves from abusive relationships. Everyone deserves to be loved void of violence, fear and physical harm.”

Benoist, 31, announced her marriage to actor Blake Jenner, 27, in 2015 and filed for divorce in December 2016. The couple’s divorce was finalized in 2017. Benoist is currently married to her “Supergirl” co-star Chris Wood, 31.  ~ MSN

For more information on domestic abuse or to get help for yourself or someone you love, visit the website for The National Domestic Violence Hotline (http://www.thehotline.org/) or call 1-800-799-7233.

You can also view Benoist’s heroic video below.

~ Posted by: Richard Webster, Ace News Today   /   Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter