Two weeks after filing for divorce, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Taylor Armstrong is now alleging husband Russell Armstrong abused her both verbally and physically.
Taylor, 40, makes the shocking revelations in an all new interview with PEOPLE magazine. While all that talk about an amicable split came about after Taylor filed for divorce following six years of marriage, she is now telling a darker tale of her relationship’s demise.
“I felt like I was dying inside,” she says. “Now, there’s some sense of peace.” Taylor claims Russell was both verbally and physically abusive, with name-calling, hair pulling, and shoving being a staple of their marriage. She also alleges Russell threw things at her when enraged. As a child of domestic abuse, Taylor was an advocate for battered women, and her efforts were highlighted on the first season.
Taylor reveals, “I’m mad at myself for tolerating things I should not have tolerated from the first moment. Allowing this to happen in my own relationship was something I felt very ashamed of.”
After several months of counseling, Taylor realized she needed a better environment for the couple’s five-year-old daughter Kennedy and decided to end the marriage, adding the decision was a difficult one. “When I knew the filing had gone through, I just started to cry,” she says. “We tried hard to fix our marriage, but it wasn’t healthy.”
For his part, Russell, 47, admits, “Did I push her? Yes, maybe things happened in the heat of the moment, but it was during a time in our lives that was not characteristic of who we were. This show has literally pushed us to the limit.” Russell, however, denies ever pulling his wife’s hair.
The viewers of the reality hit will watch the couple’s marriage implode on the upcoming season which premieres September 5 on Bravo.
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