Blake Jenner Admits To Being Physically Abusive During His “Toxic Relationship” With Melissa Benoist
Last November, Melissa Benoist, who was in the last two seasons of Glee and currently plays Supergirl, posted a video in which she talked about being in a shitty, horrible, abusive relationship where her partner emotionally and physically abused her, controlled her, and got jealous of her doing kissing and flirty scenes, which led to her turning down auditions and jobs. Melissa never named her abuser, but many, many eyes were thrown at her ex-husband Blake Jenner (who FYI isn’t a kin of Caitlyn’s). Nearly a whole year later, Blake has responded and is telling his side of the story in a long-ass Instagram post, admitting that he did get violent with Melissa but that the abuse went both ways.
32-year-old Melissa and 28-year-old Blake first met on the cursed set of Glee, where she played Marley and he played Ryder. They got engaged in 2013 and married in 2015. Melissa filed for divorce in 2016 and their marriage was declared legally done in 2017. In Melissa’s video, she said that the physical abusive started five months into their relationship, and she detailed several alleged violent incidents. One of those incidents was the time that Blake threw an iPhone at her face and it fucked up her eye. She had to go to the hospital and she covered for her abuser by telling the nurses and police that she fell (and she later explained the black eye on The Tonight Show by saying that she fell down the stairs and hit her eye on a potted plant). Melissa said that her vision has never been the same since.
In Blake’s response, he started out by admitting he was the abuser that Melissa was talking about (and like Melissa, he never mentions her by name) and that he felt the need to finally address the accusations both publicly and privately with Melissa. Blake said that he tried to leave the relationship but stayed after she asked him to. Blake takes “full responsibility and accountability” for the hurt he caused, but then he made a shart right (typo and it stays) down Deflective Road before getting onto the ME-ME-ME Highway.
Blake didn’t get into all of the violent allegations from Melissa, but he did admit that he threw a phone at her during a fight. But said he “aimlessly” threw it and with help from therapy, he’s working on forgiving himself.
If I could do anything to take it back, I would. However, as hard as it has been to come to terms with it and as hard as it is for me to even describe that moment in detail now, whatever the intention may have been, I am responsible for the pain that I caused her in that moment and beyond. And it is something I am working on forgiving myself for.
Melissa said in her video that as the alleged abuse went on, she began to defend herself and fight back. But Blake makes it sound like the abuse was mutual from the beginning and a lot of what Melissa claims that he did to her, he claims she did to him. Blake said that Melissa was very controlling and manipulative and he had to pass on jobs because she was jealous of prospective female co-stars. According to Blake, Melissa was repeatedly violent and once put him in the hospital too, and he also alludes to her trying to Lorena Bobbitt him, or something, in the shower:
I was verbally and emotionally abused for everything from the family I was born into to the clothes I would wear in photoshoots. I was scratched. I was slapped. I was punched in the face, which caused a trip to the hospital to treat my broken nose. I, too, have had to conceal and make up lies about many visible injuries I had incurred throughout the relationship. I was physically assaulted in the shower, leaving me with a traumatic injury that I do not want to delve into at this time.
Blake added that there are “discrepancies” between their versions of their relationship, but he doesn’t want it to turn into a “she-said-he-said mud-slinging match” and that getting into specifics would reveal things “that I believe my former partner would want respected as they pertain to her personal life.” Blake then went on to release more Chicken Soup For The Soul-type words about healing and growing. Blake apologized to victims of abuse for being triggered by their story and he apologized to Melissa for the pain he caused her during their relationship and will continue to work on himself.
Here’s Blake’s six-part response:
I’m not sure why Blake waited almost a year for this. Could it be because Melissa, who is now married to Chris Wood, just had a baby and he thought this would be a nice bow-wrapped fuck you gift to mess with her happiness a bit? Or maybe he’s at risk of losing that Merrily We Roll Along gig. “Why not both?” said the Why Not Both Girl.
Pic: Wenn.com