While promoting her upcoming book, Choices: To the Hills and Back Again, Audrina Patridge opened up about the abuse she says she suffered at the hands of ex-husband Corey Bohan. The 37-year-old reality star shared her story with Alex Cooper during an episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, and some of the claims she makes about Corey are truly shocking.
Audrina called her relationship with Corey "toxic" as she opened up to Alex about her past.
The single mother explained how she initially fell for Corey because he had a "different vibe" than a lot of the men she was used to meeting in Los Angeles. "I just felt like I needed a guy who was respected in his own industry and had his own thing going on," she said of the BMX star.
Though they hit it off immediately, things quickly started to go south.
Audrina described how she began getting messages from fans who would tell her that Corey had been spotted making out with other women in bars. "When I would confront him, he would say, 'They're lying to you because they don't want you to be happy. They're just fans. Don't believe other people,'" she recalled.
But it wasn't long before she started to see signs that maybe those fans had been right all along.
Corey then began accusing Audrina of the very things he apparently had been guilty of doing behind her back.
According to Audrina, Corey became paranoid and jealous, forcing her to delete her social media accounts and frequently reading her private messages.
"I couldn't even have a girls dinner without being blown up the entire time because I was being accused of going out to cheat," she shared. "It got to the point where I'd rather not go out because I didn't want to deal with the fighting or accusations."
This pattern of emotional abuse went on for a while, according to The Hills star, and continued even after Audrina became pregnant with Corey's child.
Audrina said she hid all of this from her friends and family because she hoped things would be better once she found out she was pregnant.
"Once Kirra was born, it was the happiest I had ever seen [Corey]," Audrina recalled. "He was so excited to be a dad and for this new chapter in our lives. But things gradually got worse. It just got worse and worse."
The tipping point came when she arrived home and found Corey and his friends partying loudly downstairs while baby Kirra was alone upstairs. "I knew then that his priorities were not right," she said. "This isn't happening again. She was only four or five months [old]."
The police were called after Audrina says Corey got physical with her while she was holding their daughter.
"It was like that flight or fright mode. I kind of froze — I didn't know what to do," Audrina said of the moment she claims Corey shoved her. "Things kept escalating. When I was pushed back, Kirra started screaming and crying and I started screaming and crying and he realized what happened."
We're so glad that Audrina reached out for help after that. She said she called her family and the police and quickly ended her nearly yearlong marriage. It has to be hard for Audrina to share her story, but we have to imagine it's going to help so many others who find themselves in similar situations. Kudos to Audrina for using her platform to speak out about such an important topic.
If you or someone you know has been the victim of domestic abuse, you can find help and support at DVIS.org, the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or by contacting your local women's shelter (domesticshelters.org).
