Shereé Whitfield Shares How Her Kids Reacted to Her Opening Up About Domestic Abuse
The #RHOA mom reveals her message for other women in this type of relationship.
In what has to be one of the most contentious The Real Housewives of Atlanta reunions to date, Shereé Whitfield totally shifted the tone in the room when she opened up about the abuse she faced while married to Bob Whitfield during Part 2 of the Season 9 sit-down. Shereé shared that much of the abuse was verbal and emotional but noted that she did have some "physical altercations" with her ex-husband.
"It was tough to even talk about that or even have those conversations with even with Bob or any of the girls — and in front of millions of people," she told The Daily Dish. "This is something that I just kind of covered up and for a long time. It was definitely emotional, but it was something that I felt afterwards, it's like, 'Oh' cause I didn't realize I was still holding on to all that pain. It felt — I don't want to say it felt good to be able to talk about it and to be able to try and get over it 'cause I probably couldn't have gotten over it unless it came out, unless I talked about it, unless we had these discussions. So it was definitely therapeutic for me and I felt like I needed to do that to be the best woman that I can be — not just for myself, but in a relationship."
Shereé was uncertain about having her children talk about this time in her life — especially on TV, but they did see and it opened up a dialogue with them. "I know my oldest daughter [Tierra] watches and Kaleigh actually watches [the show] and it's so funny because if I'm home sometimes we'll watch together," she said. "But those [episodes] I made sure not to turn the TV on cause I didn't know how that was going to turn out because I never had that conversation with my kids about things that happened in the marriage. The show actually cane on and I'm sitting there like 'Oh my gosh.. I know what's going on in the show.' I didn't want them to see it and so that scene comes on and Kaliegh comes over and gives me a hug. She's like 'Oh my gosh, mom I'm so sorry.'"
Now that Shereé has opened up about her past, she has this message for her daughters and all women: "Know your self worth and believe in yourself and sometimes you just have to walk away."
Below, check out throwback photos of Shereé.
