Taylor Armstrong detailed the abuse she endured while married to her late husband, Russell Armstrong.
In a preview of Investigation Discovery’s Hollywood Demons given to The Daily Mail, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills exposed more than Bravo TV cameras revealed.
CONTENT WARNING – (DV)
Russell was publicly violent:
Taylor and her daughter’s father visited their friends’ home, and they were concerned for Taylor. “Russell left, and this couple, they were very close to me and were very aware of what was going on.”
“The man said, ‘We’ll help you get out of this because this is not okay. We’re really worried for you.’ Russell was hiding around the side of the house and heard everything.”
Russell “came flying into the backyard,” recalled Taylor. “He threw me in the pool. He grabbed the man, and knocked all of his teeth out.” Then, Russel “jumped in the pool. He was trying to hold me under the water. I thought he was going to drown me.”
More disturbing instances of abuse …
“Once [Russell’s sons from a previous relationship] were visiting us and I made them a pizza,” the RHOBH alum recalled. “He came into the house, grabbed me by the throat, and put me against the wall. He said, ‘If you ever serve my kids a pizza without a vegetable again, I’ll kill you.’”
In another disturbing revelation, Taylor explained that she found recording devices throughout their home. She realized she had no private moments in the marriage.
But, it took a fractured orbital floor (a break in the bone that supports the eyeball) in 2011 for Taylor to realize she needed out of the marriage.
Taylor was love-bombed before the cycle continued:
She recalled celebrating her 40th birthday at a Four Seasons Hotel, where Russell gifted her with eight pairs of her favorite shoes and “a really long card and it was all about how he knew he hadn’t been a good husband and that things were going to change.”
Taylor had recently been to Las Vegas with Lisa Vanderpump for Lisa’s daughter’s bachelorette party. Russell “said something to the effect of, ‘I know you slept with the Chippendales when you were in Vegas.’ He continued to “push and push, and he would not let up.”
“He raised up, leaned over, and punched me,” she detailed. “He fractured my orbital floor. So, I went to see the doctor. Russell went with me.”
The injury required reconstructive surgery.
Taylor filed to divorce Russell Armstrong:
CONTENT WARNING – suicide
One month later, Russell took his life by hanging in 2011.
Taylor, who married Russell in 2005 and welcomed daughter Kennedy in 2006, didn’t see it coming. “There was a myriad of things that he was very concerned about, but I never thought that he would kill himself.”
“Suicide never crossed my mind.”
Taylor’s episode of Hollywood Demons on Investigation Discovery (ID) airs on 4/14 at 9:00 pm EST.
