Anna Kendrick Shares How She Managed to Escape an Abusive Relationship

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Anna Kendrick is opening up about a past abusive relationship she escaped.

On an episode of Alex Cooper's Call Her Daddy podcast that dropped Wednesday, October 23, the Woman of the Hour director and actress revealed that she was in an abusive relationship that lasted seven years.

Kendrick shared that at first, she didn't recognize the signs, but when she looked into it, she realized some of her ex's habits were similar to those of an abuser.

Anna Kendrick attends Anna Kendrick In Conversation with Josh Horowitz about the film "Woman of the Hour" at 92NY on October 22, 2024 in New York City. In a podcast appearance on October 23, 2024,... Jason Mendez/Getty Images

"I was, like, reading all the articles and going, 'This doesn't look... like, some of it looks like how they're describing it, but not completely," Kendrick said.

Kendrick said that her ex's behaviors took her by surprise. "It was like an overnight switch... that went on for about a year. So it didn't follow that more traditional, like, it's like a frog in boiling water thing where it started slow." The actress didn't share the ex's name, but said that the breakup happened shortly before she filmed the 2022 movie Alice Darling, which tells a story about emotional abuse.

As first, she believed that she was responsible for the abuse she endured."It came out of absolutely nowhere, but was built on this foundation of I had so much love and trust for that person, so I thought it had to be me," Kendrick said. "Like, if one of us is crazy, it must be me. So it was very, very difficult to actually go, 'No, I think this is him. I think this is his stuff. I turned my life completely upside down trying to fix whatever was wrong with me."

She even detailed an incident in which her ex blamed her for expressing emotions.

"He told me one day I was terrorizing him because I was just crying because I couldn't pretend that things were fine anymore, and I just started crying," said Kendrick. "And he screamed in my face, 'You're terrorizing me.' But it was truly from the place of a person who believed that they were being terrorized."

Though Kendrick and her ex attempted to work things out in couples therapy, she said the therapist "just bought his stuff kind of hook, line, and sinker." She admitted that she "yelled" during one therapy session and "something shifted" after that.

Kendrick later emailed the therapist to apologize, and the therapist called her and said he was "so proud" of the actress for speaking out on the abuse during the session.

"Things ended pretty quickly after that," she said.

If you or someone you know are experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.