Former The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Taylor Armstrong is reflecting on the abuse she endured during her marriage to late ex-husband Russell Armstrong.
Taylor, 54, revealed on the Friday, October 31, episode of the “I Do, Part 2” podcast that she was “a little bit more” than six months pregnant the first time Russell “choked” her when they were “getting ready to go to a charity event.”
Taylor married Russell in 2005 and they welcomed daughter Kennedy the following year. Russell’s abuse was later exposed during Taylor’s time on RHOBH, with former costar Camille Grammer alluding to what was going on behind closed doors during season 2, which aired in 2011.
Taylor said on Friday’s podcast that she confided in both Adrienne Maloof and Camille about the abuse before they “turned against me” on the show.
“It was very surprising how that all shook out on the show,” she recalled. “It was really hurtful to me.”
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One thing RHOBH did do, however, was give Taylor a sense of safety.
“He’s not going to hit me and take a risk that I’m going to have a bruise on camera,” she recalled thinking, noting that when RHOBH premiered in 2010, “it was quite evident” to viewers that there was “something off” in the marriage.
Taylor eventually filed for divorce from Russell in July 2011. One month later, he died by suicide.
During Friday’s podcast, Taylor further detailed the early days of their relationship, Taylor said there were “little red flags” that she ignored.
“Because I liked him so much, I just thought, ‘Oh, it’s because he likes me so much he doesn’t want me to talk to other guys.’ Then it just builds the jealousy, builds the control, builds over time,” she said. “I had a textile company at the time in downtown L.A. and he started saying, ‘I don’t want you to work. You shouldn’t have to work. I’ll take care of you.’ It felt very knight in shining armor at first.”
Taylor said she “gave up” her company and lost her “own financial capabilities” for the relationship, which ended up being a tool Russell used to control her.
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“He would threaten me. So he’s got the financial control, and now he would say to me, ‘Go ahead, call the police. Then I’ll have to go to jail, then I won’t work.’ I had no access to finances,” she explained. “He wouldn’t give me access to any money. I had a black card. I could charge whatever I wanted. It wasn’t limited. He wasn’t limiting me on spending.”
Taylor went on to leave RHOBH in 2013 and married now-husband John Bluher in 2014. She explained that she tells her story of abuse “frequently” to help others who might be experiencing the same thing.
“I’m an open book. Anything you want to talk about, I love sharing it,” she explained. “Mainly because it is helping all those other people that are out there that may not realize that they’re in a domestic violence situation or that they’re seeing some red flags, but they’re questioning themselves.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.
