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The harshest thing I can say is I was married to someone for whom all dissent was abuse. If you had your own opinion, you were abusive.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't angry some days. But I really have worked hard to put a lot of the anger and disappointment in the past.

I've been married four times and caused a great deal of hurt and upset around me.

Abuse if you slight it, will gradually die away; but if you show yourself irritated, you will be thought to have deserved it.

I got married at 22 and remained in an abusive marriage for 10 years. I made up my mind that that was never going to happen to me again. I made a brave step to walk out in a society when you didn't walk out of an abusive marriage. It was mental and physical abuse.

All through life I've harbored anger rather than expressed it at the moment.

I never yet heard man or woman much abused that I was not inclined to think the better of them, and to transfer the suspicion or dislike to the one who found pleasure in pointing out the defects of another.

For a long time I thought I could deal with my anger and hostility on my own. But I couldn't. I denied that it had affected me, and yet I was so frantic on the inside with other people: I needed to be constantly reassured.

I'd been around women who put me down, made me feel bad, or said things to fuel my insecurity.