Meredith Vieira Reveals Why She Stayed in Abusive Relationship

Meredith Vieira is opening up about her own history with domestic abuse and why she stayed in an abusive relationship when she was younger.

The talk show host revealed her story after the #WhyIStayed campaign went viral on social media amid the Ray Rice scandal.

“I want to explain to you why I stayed. I was in an abusive relationship many many years ago as a young woman. I’ve talked a little bit about this. It started out, I loved this guy, it started out we’d have a fight and he’d just sort of grab my arm. I didn’t think a lot about it and then it turned into pushing me into a wall and then it went beyond that to actually taking his hand and grabbing my face and saying, ‘I could ruin your career if I wanted to and no one would want you,’” Meredith began her story. “Now, this is going on, I’m a smart woman, a lot of people say, ‘Well, who would stay in that situation? Somebody who doesn’t have the wherewithal to get out, the means to get out. I had that. I had a job at the time and I kept in this relationship and I’ve done a lot of thinking about why and I think part of it was fear. I was scared of him. I was scared if I tried to leave something worse could happen to me.”

Watch the video below to hear the rest of the story: