Jana Kramer Prayed to Be ‘Taken From This Place’ During Abusive Marriage
Jana Kramer is taking a stand during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, sharing in great detail her traumatic past with an abusive husband in order to encourage and empower other women going through the same thing.
The artist sat down with ABC News and opened up about what it was like for her during the worst of it, when he tried to kill her.
"My grandpa has always been my angel, and I remember praying to him, saying, ‘I don’t even want to be here anymore,'" Kramer tearfully recalls, "'So if there is a happier place…take me from this place so I don’t have to be here anymore because I don’t know how to get out.'"
Though Kramer was choked unconscious by her ex-husband, Michael Gambino, she survived. Gambino was ultimate sentenced to six years in prison. After his release, Kramer says she lived in fear that he would harm her again. Two years later, she learned he had committed suicide.
“I felt bad because my first feeling was relief that he was gone, that I didn’t have to worry about him anymore,” she admits.
Kramer wants her story to help other women who have experienced or are experiencing abuse. She wants them to know it’s not happening because of anything they have done.
“He started to be verbally abusive, and then it would be grabbing the arms, black eye, and he was manipulating me to feel like it was my fault,” she says. “So many people that are in abusive situations feel like they’re the reason for this, and the truth of the matter is, they’re not."
Now Kramer is raising her daughter, Jolie, as a single working mom, as she and her third husband Michael Caussin recently separated following a string of his infidelities. She’s currently working on Dancing With the Stars and says her ex is getting the help he needs.
“He is doing all the work that he’s supposed to be doing right now,” she shares, noting that through all this heartbreak she has learned a lot about herself and what she deserves.
“I am so much stronger than I ever thought was possible. I am worthy of a great love."
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