Evan Rachel Wood has compared her relationship with Marilyn Manson to a ‘death sentence’. Picture: Reuters
EVAN Rachel Wood has compared her relationship with Marilyn Manson to a "death sentence".
The 36-year-old actress issued a statement two years ago in which she accused the 'Beautiful People' rocker - whose real name is Brian Warner - of "horrifically" abusing her during their three-year romance, which ended in 2010, and she's now spoken of how desperate she was to "escape" their union.
Speaking on the 'Navigating Narcissism' podcast, she said: “There was a moment where I was like, ‘I’m so afraid of this person, I’ve been threatened so many times, either with blackmail or with force and if I stay here because I’m too scared to leave, I feel like I’m dead anyway’.
"Staying felt like a death sentence, leaving also felt terrifying because something could happen to me or he could come after me. I felt like either way I feel dead so I may as well try to escape.”
The 'Westworld' star claimed Manson would "isolate" her from friends and regularly subjected her to a "non-stop onslaught of words" while they worked through a "mound of cocaine".
She added: "[This included] telling you everything that was wrong with the world and the people around you, everything you were doing wrong, all the ways you were failing him and failing yourself, the suspicions he had towards you, he would start wrecking the house.”
Wood - who has a 10-year-old son with ex-husband Jamie Bell - had spoken in the past about being abused, but it wasn't until two years ago she publicly named her alleged abuser, and she explained she did so because she had hit "breaking point".
She said: "When I realised what a physical impact it was having on me, that was a breaking point, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stay quiet. I realised my silence was keeping me really sick.”
And the actress credited her role as Dolores Abernathy in 'Westworld' for helping her get the confidence she needed to speak out.
She said: “There’s a scene where my character is programmed and she can’t pull triggers of any guns, she can’t defend herself and then there’s a scene where she finally does and she overrides her programming… that scene was a big moment for me, having to act the feeling of being held back and then breaking through it.”
Manson has denied his former fiancee's allegations.
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