close to distanced themselves

Melissa says women who admit domestic abuse was a factor in them leaving – even if they believed their former partner would not hurt their children – face “perhaps the cruellest” judgements from others. “In domestic violence, women barely get out alive, let alone with their mental health intact,” she says. Yet this cohort of mothers will still be asked by both strangers and people they know “how could you do it?” or “are the kids OK with it?”. “Very rarely do people ask ‘how are you?’ ‘are you ok?’,” says Melissa.