Evan Rachel Wood Shares Heartbreaking Stories About Abuse, Self-Harm

Evan Rachel Wood tweeted about the domestic violence she endured during an abusive relationship, sharing images of herself when she self-harmed, alongside the hashtag IAmNotOK.

On Monday, the “Westworld” actress chimed in on Twitter about domestic violence with photographs of herself at a photo shoot where she said she was “severely depressed” because of a relationship with an abusive partner.

The images shared by Wood, 31, are from a shoot she did with actor Chris Evans for Elle magazine in September 2010 in New York City. She ended an engagement with longtime partner Marilyn Manson in August 2010.

Shortly after her first message, she tweeted about how she resorted to self-harm to “disarm” her partner at the time because she was “desperate to stop the abuse” but was “too terrified to leave.” 

Fans of Wood thanked her for her openness and shared their own stories of domestic violence:

“If you can’t hear the whole truth, you will never know true empathy,” she told the congressional committee beside advocates from the anti-sexual-violence organization RISE and the Rape Abuse Incest National Network (RAINN) in February 2018. “I believe in the saying ‘If we have to live through it, then you should have to hear it.’”

The actress has been candid about what she experienced but has not named her abusers. In a video posted in 2017, Wood clarified that she wants to share their names but that she’s not ready to and understands others who feel similarly.

“People are wondering why women don’t come forward sooner or why they come out in numbers. It’s because it’s safer. They do not feel safe enough to do so, period,” she says in a video titled “I’m here to tell you that I’m afraid.”

“And I am guilty of this as well because I have not named my abusers, not because I don’t plan on saying these people’s names eventually but because to start that process is an emotionally draining, financially draining, really everything draining thing to do and to go through. And I want to do it when I have — when I’m ready,” she says, calling the perpetrators “very powerful, very rich, very entitled, very narcissistic white men.”

Near the end of the video, Wood says, “We need to make people feel safe enough to come forward.”

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.