Anna Kendrick recently got brutally honest about psychological abuses she endured while with an ex-boyfriend. The Pitch Perfect star has chosen to keep the man’s identity a secret, but she felt comfortable sharing details during the latest episode of the Armchair Expert podcast with Dax Shepard.
“I was with someone — this was somebody I lived with, for all intents and purposes my husband,” she explained. “We had embryos together, this was my person.”
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However, the 37-year old did not go through with the pregnancy procedures, based on information that her now ex had feelings for someone else.
The star of Alice, Darling revealed she faced common signs of abuse such as gaslighting. Kendrick claimed in the podcast that her ex would “scream” at her if she tried to discuss their relationship issues, and that only by going to couples therapy did she find the courage to break it off.
“About six years in,” she continued, “I remember telling my brother, when things had first kind of gone down[hill], ‘I’m living with a stranger. Like, I don’t know what’s happening.’”
One of the saddest moments of the interview includes when the actress revealed how she felt responsible for so many of the extremes that happened in her relationship, to the point that if something had happened earlier on to cause a rift, it was because she was convinced she was a too complicated to be loved.
“If we broke up,” she explained, “or if he left basically, it was a confirmation that it’s because I’m impossible, I’m lucky that he’s even tolerating my bullsh*t.”
The psychological abuse Kendrick faced is not uncommon; 48.4% of women have experienced at least one form of psychological aggression by an intimate partner during their lifetime, according to research from the Ananias Foundation.
It’s sad proof that even celebrities are not immune to the emotional abuse others face every day. Kendrick did advocate for how therapy helped her grow stronger and feel more independent.
However, though it did take time, it was worth seeking support for the end of her long-term relationship, where she learned to “start drawing boundaries… that was really scary and really hard but that is what ended the relationship.”
Now she’s moving on to new projects and understands that her struggles are not limiting factors for her life’s work. “All of these things ended up being very wonderful things for me in the long run,” she explained in the podcast.
