TV presenter Ruth Dodsworth has spoken out about the abuse she endured for almost a decade at the hands of her ex-husband.
The ITV Wales weather presenter, 46, says abusive ex Jonathon Wignall told their kids she “didn’t want them anymore”.
Speaking candidly on Instagram, the mum-of-two told her followers Jonathan, 55, took a photo of her while she lay in a hospital bed and sent it to her children with a message.
The photo showed Ruth hooked up to several wires, with Jonathan reportedly writing: “This is what it looks like when you don’t want your children anymore.”
Reflecting on the time of the abuse, she penned: “Three years ago I was taken into hospital. He photographed everything. I never knew why.”
(Image: twitter.com/Ruth_ITV)
She told her followers: “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. #coercivecontrol #DomesticAbuse.”
The broadcaster recently opened up about her fears about her abusive ex-husband being released from prison.
Nightclub owner Jonathan Wignall was sentenced to three years in prison last April after he pleaded guilty to stalking and coercive control.
(Image: ITV)
Last month, Ruth appeared on Loose Women to discuss his potential release with the ITV panellists after recently telling fans she had installed alarms “everywhere” at home.
Opening up to the ladies, she shared: “You can’t keep people behind bars forever. Everyone has rights, but it was a year ago today that the judge said to him, ‘You’re evil and you’re a danger to your wife and your children’. How much of that has changed?
“I’m human and I’ve had to wrestle with the fact that I feel I’ve sent this man to prison. He’s my children’s father.”
(Image: PA)
The ITV broadcaster open up about her abusive experience in a new TV programme called Controlled By My Partner? The Hidden Abuse aired on Thursday (May 5).
The show will explore the crime of coercive control and will investigate what can be done to stop domestic abuse.
It’ll air previously unseen police footage showing the moment Ruth’s ex-husband was arrested.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
