Meredith Vieira reveals why she stayed in abusive relationship

NEW YORK, Sept. 17 (UPI) —

Meredith Viera will address a time in which she was involved in an abusive relationship, and why she stayed with her partner, on her talk show on Wednesday as a way to show support to the #WhyIStayed campaign that began on social media following the Ray Rice domestic abuse scandal.

The hastags #WhyIStayed and #WhyILeft became trending topics on Twitter last week after a video of the former Baltimore Ravens running back attacking his wife in an elevator was unveiled by TMZ. Victims of domestic abuse used the tags to share their story on why they decided to stay with or leave their abusive partners.

"Every nine seconds a woman is abused or assaulted in this country," Vieira will say on Wednesday’s episode of The Meredith Vieira Show, which she taped Tuesday. "Every nine seconds this is going on."

After explaining the social media campaign to viewers, Vieira goes on to say she "was in an abusive relationship many, many years ago as a young woman."

"I want to explain to you why I stayed," she continues.

"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 [his] actually taking his hand and grabbing my face and saying, ‘I could ruin your career if I wanted to and no one would watch you.’"

After admitting that, unlike many of the victims of domestic abuse, she did have the means to leave her partner and continue with her life alone, she says she stayed, in part, because she was scared.

"I was scared if I tried to leave something worse could happen to me," she explained, adding that, "Part of it was guilt, because every time we would have a fight he would then start crying and say, ‘I promise I won’t do it again,’ and I would feel like maybe I contributed somehow to this — and they are saying this about Ray Rice’s wife, that it takes two to tango."

The 60-year-old journalist goes on to say she stayed in the relationship until she was eventually offered a job in a different state and stressed that, "It’s not so easy to just get away. You think it would be, but it’s not."

Her final advice to viewers and victims of domestic abuse is to use of the shelters and hotlines that are available nowadays, and weren’t at the time she was in an abusive relationship.

"That’s just my experience with it, and I know it’s rampant in this country, and we all have to accept the fact that it’s not just an issue with the NFL â € “ it’s an issue with all of our lives, and until we take it seriously, more and more women are going to get abused," she said.

The release of the Rice video has sparked an intense debate regarding the National Football League’s policy on punishments for domestic abuse. In response to the controversy, 16 congresswomen sent a letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell calling for "zero tolerance" on violent assaults.