Zari Hassan ended her marriage to Ivan Ssemwanga in 2013 and accused him of being physically violent and abusive.
Speaking in a recent interview, the businesswoman opened up on her abusive marriage and when she chose to leave.
“Abuse starts with a word, it can start with verbal abuse. something that diminishes you as a person. Sometimes it gets very physical and very violent,” Zari stated.
According to her, Ivan was naturally violent and abusive and getting rich was not a reason for his behavior. She said that her husband was insecure and once beat her up because she had been looked at by someone while they were in a club.
“It was something that was in him. He once hit me so badly in a club because someone looked at me. I was never allowed to look at other people. That night he beat me so bad that he almost suffocated me,” the mother of five narrated.
Zari said that Ivan first abused her when she was three months pregnant and trend continued until her children became aware of it.
“It reached a point where the kids would hear me and him screaming in the bedroom. It got to a point where my son asked me why he kept doing that. It hurt me so badly, it was like a sword had been pierced through my heart,
“He has been hearing it but has never talked about it. I asked myself for how long he had known what I was going through. It became violent and obsessed and he would find people sitting at the next table and he would react badly. I was first abused by Ivan when 3 months pregnant. It was not the money that changed him,” the former singer said.
She covered up for Ivan and lied to her children about what was happening to her.
“I lied to my kids that we were just speaking, my son asked me for long I would tolerate the abuse. It had reached a point where he felt nobody would have me if it wasn’t him,” Zari said.
Zari further said that she was advised to protect her marriage and such were normal things in marriages. She however finally made a decision and walked away from Ivan.
“People would encourage me to hang in there as these things happen in marriage and I thought they were crazy. At the time my son was 9 years old. I started isolating myself because I felt I was not good enough.
“He was almost killing me. When I left he thought I would fail and come back. We had rentals so I gave the tenant notice and moved into the house,” she said.
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