Actress Christie Hayes has courageously opened up about her terrifying experience with domestic violence.
The 37-year-old former Home and Away actress, who played the role of Kirsty Phillips,
confessed on the Hit Network’s Dan & Christie radio show that she was just a teenager of 15
when her boyfriend assaulted her. She told the hosts: “I haven’t ever spoken about it on-air. I’ve really (never) told anybody about it apart from my Mum.
“I was 15. I was on TV. Wherever I went I would have people stare at me and whisper, ‘Oh, that’s Kirsty from Home and Away.'”
She continued: “I remember being at the airport with a boyfriend and he had gone through my bag, he’d gone through my stuff, and I had written a聽Christmas聽card to a co-star of mine a guy who was on the show with me. I had said, ‘Hey, I love you. Merry Christmas. Have a great break.’
Christie Hayes spoke about her harrowing ordeal
“He read the card, I hadn’t even gotten a word out of my mouth (before) he turned around and (hit me).” Christie revealed that he “struck her so hard she almost lost a tooth” and was “bleeding all down her face”.
She said: “I remember shaking with embarrassment thinking, ‘Oh my god, what if someone saw that? I ran to the bathroom, and I started to cry.
“I was 15 when this happened. I was young, I was a little girl. I look back on that little girl and I just think, I just want to protect her.”
She went on to say: “It’s still happening. It’s happening to little girls, it’s happening to grown women we are being hit. We are sick and tired of it.
“I look back at the kid I was, and I wish I protected myself. I couldn’t protect myself.”
Recently, Christie also shared her heartbreaking miscarriage experience. She was expecting her first child with her husband and radio presenter Justin Coombes-Pearce and was due to give birth in 2024.
Earlier this month, speaking to New Idea magazine, the former actress said the “stars all aligned” when she discovered she was pregnant. However, as the family started sharing the pregnancy news with their loved ones, Christie suffered a miscarriage.
