Reality star Angela Simmons revealed she is a domestic violence survivor in a candid video posted on her YouTube channel.
The Growing Up Hip-Hop star revealed she dealt with verbal and physical abuse from an unnamed ex in a video on her Just Angela YouTube channel. Simmons confessed she did not realize the severity of her situation until the mistreatment escalated.
“I didn’t realize I was being verbally abused until I went through the domestic part, which is the bruise,” Simmons said.
Simmons said she overcame the abuse by “getting out of it.” She also admitted she stayed for a while because she didn’t think she was “that girl,” and she was in love.
“There’s a million reasons I know that women have stayed but for me, I didn’t feel like it was happening,” she shared. “It felt surreal. I didn’t feel like I was that woman, and I was that woman.”
Black women experience domestic violence at higher rates compared to our counterparts. According to the 2011 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, 41 percent of Black women have suffered physical abuse from a romantic partner, compared to 31 percent of white women, 30 percent of Hispanic women and 15 percent of Asians. Black women are also more likely to be killed by someone they know.
As the daughter of hip-hop legend Rev Run, some people might wonder how this could have happened to Simmons. She admitted to keeping her loved one in the dark about her situation.
“It was probably something I hid from my friends, my family because I was going through it,” Simmons said. “And I don’t know if it was I was more afraid of what they would think or was trying to figure it out for myself.”
Simmons encouraged her followers to seek professional help for their trauma and leave the situation, even if children are involved. She also urged survivors to “do the homework.”
“If you have kids, you gotta be present for your kids and be the happiest you,” she said. “How I can I do that if I’m scared? If you’re going through something with your spouse that your kids may be exposed to, And now it’s just generations upon generations that’s are going to continue to bring that along with them because of what they’re seeing. It’s bigger than you.”
Simmons turned her lemons into lemonade by doing community work through her organization, Pressure Makes Diamonds and sharing her experience.
“I want to open up this platform to be a safe space,” Simmons said.
