Jennifer Zamparelli: ‘I’m blown away by public’s response to my abuse story’
JENNIFER Zamparelli said she has been ‘blown away’ by the overwhelming support she has received since she publicly revealed she was previously in an abusive relationship.
In a recent podcast with fellow RTÉ presenter Lottie Ryan, the 2FM star disclosed how she suffered physical abuse in a relationship when she was in her early twenties. In one segment of the podcast, called Jen & Lottie do… Parenting, Zamparelli spoke about the shame and stigma often felt by victims of physical and domestic abuse.
But since going public with her own harrowing experience, the Dancing with the Stars host said she has been inundated with messages of support from women across the country, many of whom suffered domestic abuse.
She told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘The messages of support from women all over the country has meant so much to me. Also, the amount of women who I know in my life who have come forward to say they experienced the same is really eye opening. I actually love that they can speak to me about it, but it’s also frightening the amount of women who have been in similar situations.’
Zamparelli said she planned to speak about her abusive relationship before but ended up backing out ‘because I wasn’t ready’.
‘Speaking to Lottie about this on the podcast, I felt in a safe space. We talked about doing this in season one and I backed out because I wasn’t ready. But this time it felt right, and I’m so glad I did (speak out).
‘I’m blown away with the response that we got. It ties into what myself and Lottie are trying to do with this podcast; it’s to create an open and honest platform and community of no judgement, no judgement parenting and everything that goes along with it.’
Recalling the abuse, the presenter – now a happily married mother-of-two – said: ‘I was in an abusive relationship in my younger years. I thought it would get better; he would always apologise. But it was a very, very toxic frightening relationship at times.’
Zamparelli said that, when she was first assaulted by her then boyfriend, she felt she couldn’t tell anyone about it as she felt ‘so ashamed of letting it get to that stage. I kind of nearly blamed myself in a way.’
She said she only broke her silence after her abusive ex struck her in front of another person, after which she called a friend.
In the podcast, Zamparelli said it was difficult to speak about the abuse because she was scared of being judged.
‘You don’t want people to go, “why didn’t you leave him?” Even now, it’s hard to talk about because I know some people will be thinking, “why didn’t you leave him if it was so bad?”’
But after finally going public, she said ‘it feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders’.
She told the MoS: ‘It was the right time and place to do it and I trust Lottie completely and felt so safe in that room with her chatting about it. As difficult as it was, it was the right thing to do.’