Almost a year ago Supergirl star Melissa Benoist shared a very personal story about her experience with domestic violence and intimate partner violence on Instagram. Although she never named the ex-partner who abused her in the 14-minute video, speculations were rife that it was Blake Jenner who had caused domestic violence on his former wife Melissa.
Now Blake took to Instagram to confirm the speculations and claimed that he also experienced abuse during their marriage. In a lengthy statement posted to his Instagram on Thursday, the actor has reflected on their time together, explaining that he stayed silent “out of shame and fear.” Benoist and Jenner married in 2015 and Benoist filed for divorce in December 2016.
Blake Jenner in his statement, detailing about their past marriage, said that it was “rooted in co-dependency, which had dire consequences.” Even though he did not blame Benoist directly in his statement, he said that he wants to “address a personal situation made public in late-2019.”
The actor in his lengthy statement began by writing, “Over the past eleven months, I have been thinking about how to address a personal situation made public in late-2019. Throughout that time, I reflected on a period in my life that I had previously kept in the darkness out of shame and fear, but I know this is something that needs to be addressed, not just publicly, but also privately with the individual directly affected and with myself.”
Read the entire post below:
He had also admitted to physically hurting a past partner in his statement. Recalling an argument that escalated into violence, he wrote, “I take full responsibility and accountability for the hurt that I inflicted during my relationship with my past partner — emotionally, mentally and yes, physically.”
“Two years prior to the end of our relationship, there was a time where my past partner and I were in an argument that escalated, and in a moment of frustration, while I was standing in the hallway and she was in our bedroom, I threw my phone aimlessly and it hit my former partner in her face. I froze in a state of shock and horror as my then-partner screamed in anguish, her eye immediately swollen shut from the impact of the phone. It’s a moment that I will regret for the rest of my life.”
