This week, actor Anna Kendrick sat down with Dax Shepard and Monica Padman on the podcast Armchair Expert.
Incredible episode with @AnnaKendrick47 ❤️ Anna shares her very vulnerable story with us—we are beyond grateful for the trust and intimacy. Listen to @AnnaKendrick47 now on @spotifypodcasts 🍒🍒🍒
In the episode, Anna was super vulnerable, detailing so much of the trauma she went through during her six-year relationship with an unnamed man. This was someone she said was essentially her "husband."
Suddenly, though, there was a shift in their relationship. "About six years in, about somewhere around there, I remember telling my brother, when things had first kind of gone down, ‘I’m living with a stranger. Like, I don’t know what’s happening,'" she said.
Her partner would go into fits of rage. "It was so alarming, and it was so much easier for me to assume I was crazy or I was doing something wrong."
Ultimately, Anna said, there was one moment that kinda sealed the deal that her partner had been unfaithful — she found texts. "I was exposed to yearlong text exchange and went, 'Oh, I was right about everything.' It was actually way worse.'"
He was screaming at me, 'It was a passing crush! You're so insecure! I never saw a relationship with this girl.'"
But there was one text that said it all: "After a week of fucking you, I wanna blow up my life for you. Just say the word and we'll ride off into the sunset together." Like, imagine finding these texts on your partner's phone:
Still, her partner denied everything, which Anna said was ultimately "kind of a relief because you go, 'Oh, you're pathological.'"
She then decided to confront the other woman. "To her eternal credit, she was like, 'Yes, can I call you?' We talked on the phone for about an hour. She was just like, 'I'm so embarrassed, and I'm so sorry.' It was her saying it, and her having compassion that was like, 'Oh, this is real.'"
After going through this rollercoaster, Anna said she's prioritizing her mental health and getting help. “I started seeing two therapists a week and I started trying to learn to meditate," she said.
"I got into AlAnon and all of these things ended up being very wonderful things for me in the long run, but initially went into them thinking, ‘Tell me how to stop being crazy. Tell me how to stop feeling anything,’” she shared.
Thank you, Anna, for being so open. It will help so many people. You can listen to her Armchair Expert episode here.
If you or someone you love is struggling with an addiction, here are some resources that might be of help:
Find an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting group near you here.
Talk to a representative from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) on their free, confidential, 24/7 national helpline by calling 1-800-662-HELP.
Or if you or someone you love is having suicidal thoughts, call or visit the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline is 1-888-950-6264 (NAMI) and provides information and referral services; GoodTherapy.org is an association of mental health professionals from more than 25 countries who support efforts to reduce harm in therapy.