• Lily Collins recently exposed her prior relationship.
• Throughout her interview on the We Can Do Hard Things podcast.
• She described an incident of abuse she had undergone at the hands of an ex-boyfriend.

Lily Collins recently exposed her prior relationship and the trauma she experienced while in it by wearing her emotions on her sleeve. Throughout her interview on the We Can Do Hard Things podcast, Collins clarified everything.

She described an incident of abuse she had undergone at the hands of an ex-boyfriend in her “early 20s” there. Collins went so far as to open up about the kind of abuse she experienced and confess, “For me, my toxic romantic relationship was verbal and emotional abuse and being made to feel very small.”

He would refer to me as “Little Lily,” she added, telling the co-hosts Glennon Doyle, Amanda Doyle, and Abby Wambach. He would call me names like “Little Lily,” “you should be a whore,” and other horrible things based on what I was wearing.

Collins was even forced to become “very mute and comfortable in silence and feeling like I had to make myself small to feel super safe” at one point when the “belittling comments” finally started getting to her. Collins was even forced to seek treatment as a result of the abuse, where she discovered that “prey made themselves as small as possible when they were threatened.”

The only way they felt safe was “perhaps by not eating and making themselves look as least juicy and attractive as possible.” In the end, her ex’s activities even caused her to have pervasive “panic” and “anxiety” feelings.

“The circumstances are totally different now than they were ten years ago… I can still be triggered by that panic. There may be a time throughout the day when past resurfaces in that way, even if I am in the healthiest of relationships. She said, “It is like a millisecond, or shorter than a millisecond.”

Your heart begins to beat, and you immediately are transported back to the time when they said that to you 10 years ago. Her husband has, however, made some progress in reducing some of those triggers since “now in my life, with my lovely and supporting husband, we do communicate and talk about so much,” she says.

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