Taraji P. Henson is opening up more about surviving an abusive relationship. The Empire star has spoken in length about being in love with her son’s father. Unfortunately, their relationship took a turn for the worse when he became violent. 

During next week’s episode of her Facebook Watch series, Peace of Mind with Taraji, Henson spoke with Angela Simmons about the abuse. “Sometimes as women what we do is we fall in love and we go, ‘You know what? I’ll fix it later. For me, it was when blood was drawn,” she said.  “Because it started with the bruises and grabbing, things like that. And then once the fist came — I’m missing a piece of my lip to this day — that’s when I knew I had to go.”

Henson says childhood trauma and not wanting her son to experience the same is what got her out.

“I grew up around it and at the time I had my son, and I was like, ‘I don’t want my son around this,” she said. “You can find yourself in any bad situation in life. Guess who it is up to to get out of it? You. That’s it. If you’re not chained to a wall and no one has a gun to your head and says, ‘I’m going to shoot you,’ where’s the power? You have the power.”

The two split, but remained close friends and co-parents. Henson admits she never stopped loving him, calling him the greatest love of her life in her memoir Around The Way Girl. But he was tragically taken from her when their son was 9-years-old.

She tearfully explained having to break the news to their son in a previous episode. 

“My son’s father was suddenly taken – murdered – when he was nine, and I didn’t know how to tell him that,” Henson said. “I couldn’t tell him he was murdered, so I told him he died in an accident. I didn’t have the balls,” she continued. “It wouldn’t come out. It was in the paper and I didn’t know how to tell him. He was stabbed to death, it was the worst way you could die. I just didn’t have the words. I didn’t know how to tell a nine-year-old. He found out and he came back to me and was like, ‘Why didn’t you tell me my daddy was murdered?’ And so then we had to get therapy.”

New episodes of Peace of Mind with Taraji premiere weekly on Facebook Watch.

Watch the episode below: