Australian actress Rachael Taylor has broken her silence on her domestic violence ordeal.
Speaking for the first time in three-and-a-half years, Rachael, 29, explains she was a victim of domestic violence following the breakdown of her relationship with actor Matthew Newton.
“One woman per week in Australia dies at the hands of her current or former partner. I don’t think any woman thinks they will become an addition to these statistics. I didn’t,” she tells The Australian’s Women’s Weekly (out tomorrow).
“I remember looking at a domestic violence poster in a hospital emergency room and on it was a picture of a woman, bloodied and bruised. I didn’t relate to her, even though I was her. I thought I was the exception to the rule, but I was the rule.”
Rachael and Matthew ended their relationship in 2010 following an altercation in Rome.
According to court documents relating to the altercation, Matthew allegedly left Rachael with multiple scars and “neck injuries”.
In her first interview acknowledging that she is a victim of domestic violence, Rachael describes her ordeal, saying she felt that she couldn’t “just leave” despite her friends begging her to. She says that she felt like she lost everyone around her and lost herself.
“Worse still, you have lost your voice. Even though there is nobody around to talk to anyway, your inner voice, the dialogue you can have with yourself, is gone,” she says.
Rachael’s interview with The Weekly is part of the Secrets campaign she has launched with White Ribbon Australia, which encourages women to share their personal stories of domestic violence.
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