CW ‘Supergirl’ star, Melissa Benoist has come out as a survivor of domestic violence.
She posted a video on Instagram where she detailed her ordeal that lasted for several months.
From friend, lover to becoming an abuser, the actor did not reveal his name in the entire video but described him as “charming, funny, manipulative, devious” and someone who was younger than her.
The actor stated that at the start of their relationship, it was all rosy and he was not violent but soon he became one, owing to his insecurities and depression. Still, Melissa chose to stay in the relationship out of fear that something bad might happen to him.
In the 15 minutes long emotional video, Melissa provided details of how the violence escalated and how she got out of it. It all started when he threw a smoothie at her face and instead of taking care of herself, she was more concerned about the furniture. Later on, she could feel the throbbing pain on her cheek.
Because of the fear, Melissa got accustomed to that life. For the first time, she spoke about it was when one of her close friends visited her on set. Without his lingering presence, Melissa told her everything and felt at relief for the first time on opening up.
Though it took her a while, Benoist was able to come out of that abusive relationship.
She concludes the video, saying, “What I went through caused a tectonic shift in my outlook on life. I will be healing from this for the rest of my life. And that’s OK. If you are enduring what I went through and you see this at least you might begin to think of your freedom. You can and deserve to live a violence-free life”
Watch the video, she captioned it as, “Life Isn’t Always What It Seems”.
After sharing her story, Melissa posted about how she hopes to empower other victims.
On Instagram, she 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. 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. @futureswithoutviolence”.
For this brave step taken by Melissa, she was supported by her close ones. See:
We salute your brave heart Melissa!
