Beth Stelling posted the revelation on her Instagram page. Photo / Instagram.
Beth Stelling posted the revelation on her Instagram page. Photo / Instagram.
Stand-up comic Beth Stelling shared a shocking end of year montage on her Instagram in late December.
The photos reveal bruises all over her legs and arm along with a photo of her laughing into a mic.
She wrote: "Same girl in all of these photos (me). I've had anamazing year and you've seen the highlights here, so these photos are an uncommon thing to share but not an uncommon issue. You may be weirded out but do read on. I have a point. There are many reasons not to make an abusive relationship public, mostly fear. Scared of what people will think, scared it makes me look weak or unprofessional. When I broke up with my ex this summer, it wasn't because I didn't love him, it was because of this. And I absolutely relapsed and contacted him with things I shouldn't have, but there are no 'best practices' with this."
She also states the ex-boyfriend raped her and verbally abused her.
Stelling said she had kept quiet about the alleged abuse in order to protect her ex-boyfriend's career and to move on, however, as her stand-up is "pulled directly from my life," she began to address the abuse.
"My personal is my professional. That is how I've always been; I make dark, funny. So now I'm allowing this to be part of my story. It's not my only story, so please don't let it be."
Since taking the story on stage, she has been approached by another ex-girlfriend of his who said experienced the same abuse.
Following the post, she appeared on a podcast where she said "when I was trying to break up with this person on September 4, 2014, he raped me. And I left the next morning I ran away, and I've been trying to deal with my life since that moment."
The man has been named on Twitter by Stelling's current boyfriend.
The ex wrote: "I was incredibly hurt to see my ex-girlfriend had made public accusations across all of her social media platforms that tell a story so far beyond the truth. The severity of her accusations are false and extremely harmful. I'm not sure she realizes the irreparable harm of her actions."