Actress, Taraji P. Henson Shares Domestic Abuse Experience In New Memoir

46-year-old American actress and singer, Taraji Penda Henson just released a new bombshell about her painful past.

In her upcoming memoir titled ‘Around The Way Girl!’, the single mum of one opened up about the violent relationship she had with her son, Marcel Johnson‘s father.

In the new book, she refers to her ex, William LaMarr Johnson, who was her first love, as ‘Mark’ and talks about how she met him when she was 17 years old. She also says Mark had a hard time battling with his insecurities, adding that she called off her relationship with him after he allegedly hit her — only for him to die violently at just 34.

According to People:

”In the new book, Henson explains that she first met Mark when she was just 17 years old. From the beginning it was a passionate but turbulent relationship, in part because Mark felt he was somehow inferior to Henson.

You’re better than me, she recalls him saying to her, while she rested in his arms. You need to leave me alone.

They broke up and Mark went on to father two children with separate women. However, the pair got together in the early ’90s when Henson was at Howard University where she studied theater.

Henson stayed in school during her pregnancy and initially felt supported by Mark, but writes that things began to unravel after Marcell’s birth. She recalls that the stress of a new baby, working and Mark’s disappearances late at night resulted in a huge fight one night that turned physical.

The next thing I knew, Mark’s balled-up fist was coming straight for my face. I fell onto the bed crying and holding my mouth; blood seeped off my lips and across my teeth, Henson writes.

Droplets splashed across my shoes … slowly creeping into the fibers of my suede boots.

After she saw the blood, Henson writes that she screamed at him: This is over! Get your s— and get out!

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Though her father encouraged them to reconcile, Henson ended the relationship — for the well-being of herself and her baby.

With that separation, my forever man, my first love, was no more, she writes…

Three weeks later, Henson got a call from Mark’s mother and was told five words that would forever alter her and her son’s life: Mark was killed last night.

While Henson was devastated by Mark’s death, she continued to fight for success for herself and Marcell.

She however doesn’t share the details surrounding his death and never uses his full name.

Photo credit: EURweb