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 an amazing 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.