Actress Rebecca Humphries is calling for young people to be taught at school about healthy relationships to better protect them from domestic abuse.
The Ten Percent star’s relationship with then-boyfriend Seann Walsh was flung into the spotlight in 2018 after he was caught kissing married Strictly pro partner Katya Jones.
Walsh, 37, later admitted on the Jonathan Ross Show that he was abusive towards Rebecca.
She opened up about the emotional abuse during their five-year relationship in her book Why Did You Stay?
And now she is joining charity Women’s Aid to call for pupils to be helped to understand what a healthy relationship looks like.
Rebecca, 35, who played Carol Thatcher in The Crown, said: “They should be taught what we need to look for in a relationship, what respect and trust look like. How to love well, and be loved well.
“If young people know those things then they will grow up with a healthier framework than we ever had.”
The star said teachers had been contacting her, saying they wanted to teach her book in their classes.
She said: “People are sharing their stories, and the more that happens the better. Because there is this narrative that victims of domestic abuse are passive, submissive, weak.
“And so when it is happening to someone strong, they don’t believe it is happening to them. I want people to know that it can happen to people who are confident, attractive, funny – you can be a leader, a strong person and this can still happen to you.”
Rebecca described herself as a confident person who “became too scared to buy dinner in the supermarket in case it was the wrong thing”.
She added: “I got smaller and smaller. I dread to think what would have happened to me if the Strictly scandal hadn’t happened – because I can see a version of my life in which I stayed.
“I thought at the time that if the relationship ended, my life would be over. But it was at that exact moment that my life really began.”
Since September 2020, lessons about sex and relationships have been compulsory in schools. But Shadow domestic violence and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, who is backing Rebecca and the Women’s Aid campaign, branded the schools provision “patchy”.
She called for the Government to consult domestic and sexual violence experts when reviewing its guidance.
The Labour MP added: “It’s really important that specialists undertake this education and train schools for it to be of any value.”
A spokesman for Women’s Aid said: “Specialist organisations which understand violence against women and girls are vital in supporting schools and colleges to tackle these difficult issues effectively.”
Rebecca’s book Why Did You Stay? A Memoir about Self Worth is out in paperback now
