Country singer Jana Kramer may be smiling these days as she heats up the ballroom with pro partner Gleb Savchenko on Dancing With the Stars, but she nearly died at the hands of her ex husband several years ago.
In the new issue of People, Kramer talked about her first marriage to Michael Gambino.
The DWTS contestant revealed that she married Gambino, who was seventeen years older than her, after only two weeks of dating.
“I met Mike when I was 19 at a Coffee Bean in L.A. He was a smooth-talker, very charming, intriguing and obviously older,” the now 32 said. “At the time, I liked that. I felt protected.”
According to Kramer, things were fine in the beginning but then took a terrifying turn.
“He’d come home at 3 o’clock in the morning and pick me up out of bed, throw me onto the ground and start yelling and hitting,” she recalled. “Then the next morning he’d be like, ‘Hey, baby,’ as if nothing had happened.”
Kramer said when she got to her breaking point and tried to leave him "he sent me a photo of my dogs on the freeway and said, ‘I’m going to let them go if you don’t come home."
She stayed, his abuse continued and on Aug. 6, 2005, he choked her until she was unconscious and left her bleeding outside of her home.
"I remember praying that night, 'Please, just take me away, I don't want to be here anymore,'" she admitted.
Gambino was arrested, found guilty of attempted murder and spent six years in prison. He committed suicide two years after he was released.
Although Kramer will always be reminded of that terrifying ordeal due to some scars left on her arm from the fight, she moved on and got married two more times. However, she and her third husband, former NFL player Mike Caussin, who she has a 9-month-old daughter with, announced their separation last summer.
“I’m so embarrassed and afraid no one will love me because of my past, but I’m ready to put it out there now,” the singer said.
Kramer hopes that sharing her story will help other victims of domestic violence.