Domestic abuse is an issue that goes under the radar to breast cancer awareness during the month of October. Statistics still show that in 2 out of 3 female homicide cases, the females were killed by a family member or intimate partner. Surprisingly, many of our favorite celebrities have been in abusive relationships from Kelly Rowland, Rhianna and the late Whitney Huston. But there are more women coming out against domestic abuse. This list might shock but I hope it reminds you that love is does not leave bruises.

1. CHRISTINA MILIAN
   “So I was 17, going into 18, and I met a boy and he had this sarcasm about him that I just thought was super funny, but that sarcasm turned out to be something a little bit more dark, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. He literally put a bullet in the gun and pointed it at my face. Staring down the barrel of a gun is the scariest thing you could ever experience. It’s not funny, it’s not for the movies. There’s a chance of life or death in one click, that’s it.” After her mother bought her a ticket to New York, Milian said she “woke up one day and realized that my family was just trying to help me. And gave myself the courage and the strength to not call him and invite him back into my life.”
2. TAMAR BRAXTON
   “He made me feel so bad about having dreams, having goals…and my dreams and goals was not the same as his,” she continued. “And because of that he used to beat me down, mentally and physically. It was just a really hard time for me.” “The only reason why he got away with it then is because I did not know who I was, and I could not make the right decisions for myself because I didn’t know where to go,” she explained. “Yes, I do, and I did, have a real strong family background, but at that time, if you don’t know who you are, you don’t know where to go.” “God really saved me from myself, because I was with the wrong person, and when I was with the wrong person, it made me feel bad about who I was,” the 37-year-old talk show host said of her unnamed ex.
3. HALLE BERRY
   ‘I’m a victim of domestic violence,’ she said during her speech. ‘I wasn’t married to a man that beat me up, but my mother was,” she continued, “I never had to run to a shelter, but I did choose the wrong partners. Not always good men. Luckily, in recent years, I have been smart enough to hit the door when violence even becomes a possibility. That is something I will not tolerate.”
4. LA TOYA JACKSON
   “[Jack] was not a good guy,” La Toya says “I was brainwashed by him. I really felt like a robot. I was being beaten. He dictated my career choices … He made me say the things that he wanted me to say in my interviews.””He had very strong ties and connection to the mafia,” she claims. She says that Jack told her that for her next career move, she was going to do porn. La Toya says her reaction was, “No. Now you can kill me.” “I never felt really free until, of course, he passed away [from cancer],” she says.
5. MARIAH CAREY
   “Abuse has several categories… emotionally, mentally, in other ways. It’s scary. I just think you get into a situation and you feel locked in… For me to really get out of it was difficult because there was a connection that was not only a marriage, but a business where the person was in control of my life.”
6. NIGELLA LAWSON
   “My relations with Mr Saatchi were not good. He said to me that if I didn’t go back to him and clear his name he would destroy me – and also started spreading false allegations of drug use, and in particular that awful incident at Scott’s. I feel his way of getting this out was to use this case.’
   The paparazzi caught celebrity chef Nigella’s husband Charles Saatchi publicly grabbing her throat in a “throttling” gesture as she cried. Nigella divorced her husband shortly after the photos were released.

If you know anyone struggling to get out of a relationship call The Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or for Deaf callers on video phone 1-855-812-1001 (Monday to Friday, 9 a.m.—5 p.m. PST) or TTY 1-800-787-3224. They provide lifesaving tools and immediate support to enable victims to find safety and live lives free of abuse.

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