ITV weather presenter Ruth Dobson has shared her experience of living with an abusive partner.
The 46-year-old is known for putting a smile on her face as she keeps the Welsh population up to date on the weather. But many viewers would not have been aware of the hell that she had been facing at home.
Ruth endured coercive control for almost a decade at the hands of her now ex-husband. She said it was the point when her children feared for her safety that she realised that the treatment that she was receiving from her partner was not only wrong but also criminal.
READ MORE: ITV presenter shares harrowing photo abusive ex-husband sent her kids
Appearing in her documentary, Controlled By My Partner? The Hidden Abuse, tonight Ruth said: "While I put a smile on my face in front of the camera, for a long time behind the scenes it was a very different story. I had no idea that the threats and manipulation my ex-husband used for almost a decade were actually a pattern of criminal behaviour."
She explained: "He would call me dozens of times a day wanting to know where I was and who I was with. He would check my phone and even delete contacts from it. He would turn up at my workplace or insist that I leave the studio to eat lunch with him in his car.
"In fact, it wasn't until my own children began to fear for my safety that I realised what was going on wasn't normal. In October 2019, I finally called the police and my then-husband was arrested."
In 2021, Ruth's ex-husband plead guilty to coersive and controlling behaviour. Nightclub owner Jonathan Wignall was sentenced to three years in prison last April, leaving Ruth to try and rebuild her family.
Her 18-year-old daughter, Grace, said: "This was our reality, this was our lives. It was normal for us. And then all of a sudden we were having all these professionals telling us that's not right. Everything I had known was pretty much gone."
The offence of coercive and controlling behaviour was only recognised as a crime in England and Wales from December 2015. Similar offences were brought into law in Scotland in 2019 and Northern Ireland last year. Since 2015 police forces in England and Wales have had more than 60,000 reports of the crime. Domestic abuse was reported more than three million times in the same time period.
Controlled By My Partner? The Hidden Abuse aired at 8.30pm on Thursday (May 5) on ITV and the ITV Hub
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