Ruth Dodsworth has shared a sickening text message her ex-husband sent their children in an effort to turn them against her when he was trying to manipulate all their lives.
The 46-year-old television presenter was in a relationship with nightclub owner Jonathan Wignall for 20 years and the pair were married in 2002 and welcomed two children together.
However, the pair split in 2019 – and Wignall was later jailed for three years in 2021 after admitting a charge of coercive and controlling behaviour and stalking against the TV star that had lasted over a nine-year period.
But it wasn’t just Ruth that was being manipulated by the cruel businessman, as he also tried to turn their children against her, during his campaign of hate that also saw hime being physically and verbally abusive to her.
Taking to social media, Ruth has explained that Wignall took photos of her one day while she was being treated in hospital – which he later used to try and manipulate their children.
Sharing a screenshot of a text he allegedly sent the kids, Ruth wrote: "Three years ago I was taken into hospital. He photographed everything. I never knew why.
“After he was arrested months later this is the message he sent my children. He couldn’t manipulate me anymore. So he tried to manipulate them."
The message that he had sent to their kids included a shot of Ruth in hospital along with a cruel message reading: "This is what it looks like when you don't want your children anymore".
Ruth’s survival story is going to be laid bare in a new documentary titled Controlled By My Partner? The Hidden Abuse and includes testimonies from the TV star’s 18-year-old daughter, Grace.
The teenager appears in the programme and says: “This was our reality, this was our lives, it was normal for us. And then all of a sudden we’re having all these professionals telling us that’s not right, and everything we’ve known is pretty much gone.”
Wignall has already been denied early release from his sentence, but Ruth is bracing herself for him getting let out next year regardless.
She says in the show: "My fear is that when he was initially sentenced, the judge told him 'You're a danger to your to your ex-wife and children and you are evil'.
"How much will a year behind bars have changed this man who has lived his whole life showing these patterns of behaviour? I'd like to think that things have changed, but he'd never shown any remorse.
"And so my worry is that he will come out a far more dangerous person than he was when he went in and I'm really scared about him coming out But I want to tell anyone in a similar situation, you can have a happy life after."
Controlled By My Partner? The Hidden Abuse airs at 8.30pm on Thursday 5 May on ITV and on catch-up on the ITV Hub.
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