Jana Kramer was honored last week by Safe Horizons -- an organization that empowers victims of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault and human trafficking -- with the Empowerment Award.
Jana was just 19 when she met and married her abuser. During her acceptance speech, she said that what began as an amazing experience quickly became an abusive situation. “It started with little comments here and there. It started with more verbal abuse and then [it became] a push or a shove. And then it became a choke. [I thought] if you choke me harder then I am going to leave, but every time I tried to leave…it kept getting worse and I didn’t know how to get out.”
Jana finally came clean about her abusive marriage in October and is now on a mission to raise awareness of domestic violence.