Meredith Vieira Reveals Past Abuse Details & How She Finally Got The Courage To Leave

In the wake of the Ray Rice scandal (and ensuing #WhyIStayed/#WhyILeft Twitter trends), Meredith Vieira chose to speak out about her own experience as a victim of domestic violence.

“It started out where we would have a fight and he would grab my arm,” she revealed, speaking of a past relationship in an episode of “The Meredith Vieira Show” airing on Wednesday. “I didn’t think a lot about it. And then it turned into pushing me against the wall, and then it went beyond that to actually taking his and grabbing my face and saying, ‘I could ruin your career if I wanted to and no one would want you.'”

When the couple lived together, the talk show host said things went from bad to worse.

“He threw me into a shower, naked, in scalding water, and then he threw me outside in the hallway,” she recalled of one terrifying incident. “I hid in a stairwell for two hours until he came, again, crying, [saying] ‘I promise I won’t do this again.’

“I continued to stay in that relationship until I was offered a job in another state. And that’s when I felt I had the ability to get away,” she continued. “So when people talk about domestic violence, it really is a complicated issue – it’s not so easy to just get away.”

Meredith said that while a lot of victims stay because they don’t have the means to leave, she did have the means – mainly out of fear.

“I kept in this relationship, and I’ve done a lot of thinking about why, and I think part of it was fear – I was scared of him, and scared that if I tried to leave, something worse would happen to me,” she explained. “Part of it was guilt, because every time we would have a fight he would then start crying and say, ‘I promise I won’t do it again’ and I would feel like maybe I contributed somehow to this. And they are saying this about Ray Rice’s wife, that it takes two to tango.”

Meredith also said it’s time society makes a concerted effort to end the widespread domestic violence.

“[Domestic abuse] is rampant in this country and we all have to accept the fact that it’s not just an issue with the NFL, it’s an issue with all of our lives and until we take it seriously, more and more women are going to get abused,” she said.

Erin O’Sullivan

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