Sarah Kopp

I think it takes so long to process what's happened to you and the dynamic of the relationship, because especially when, you know, you've been groomed in such formative years, you don't really have any life experience or the development to know what is healthy and what is real.

So, yeah, it's so easy to get trapped into these things.

And

After my story went public, I had, I would say hundreds of women reaching out, either saying that they've just realized that they're in the same sort of situation, and are still trapped in there, or they have, you know, been through that and married and had children, but have now also made that realization and left as well.

Yeah, I have no doubt that it is very, very common.

Yeah, that's right.

And it probably wasn't until, you know, the children were school aged and I was starting to make friends with other mums and people who were married because none of my friends were at that stage.

You know, we were in our early 20s.

And that's when I think it started to tick over in my brain and I had people make comments to me about they didn't think my marriage was healthy or safe for me, I suppose.

And that really got me thinking, I think, and sort of started that process of me realizing I needed to get out.

I think too, because I had really no clue about how bad my relationship was.

I used to speak so openly about things, you know, things that were going on at home or, you know, and I started getting those reactions from people where they'd be like, oh, that's probably not normal.

And yeah, but I had, I honestly did in those early years think that was a typical normal sort of

Yeah, so my mum was a single mum, had always been since I was born.

So it was just the two of us.

We did have the support of her parents, but, you know, eventually we sort of moved away on our own, in our own little home.

And I guess to give some context about what my mom is like, she's very, very introverted.

I would say struggles emotionally to connect to people.

And...

just doesn't have a lot of life experience herself or relationship experience herself.