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X Factor’s Marianna ‘feared for her life’

X Factor star Marianna Zappi moved judges to tears when she opened up about her abusive relationship during her audition.

Marianna Zappi
WENN/ITV

The 34-year-old has now revealed some of the grim details about her four years of terror with her ex, and told a newspaper she was strangled, had a knife held to her throat and suffered weekly attacks at the hands of the monster.

“I feel blessed to be on the X Factor because I’m lucky to be alive,” she told the Daily Star. “I was in an abusive relationship which started with a single slap to my face after eight months and ended with almost daily beatings.

“I think the scariest moment was when he came home drunk one night and smashed a chair on my back before starting to choke me. He held so tight I lost my senses. He let go of my throat and said if I didn’t leave he was going to kill me.

Nicole Scherzinger
WENN/ITV

“It was horrific because I was living in fear of my life every day. Another time he was upset because dinner wasn’t ready and he grabbed the knife and put it to my throat.

“At the end there wasn’t a single day when I felt safe. If I was still with him now I would be dead. Nobody knew I was being abused, not even one friend. There’s fear but there’s also the shame.”

Marianna finally left her abuser when she cracked after one final attack. “He pushed me against the wall and punched me in the face and that was the last I saw of him.

Marianna Zappi
ITV/WENN

“For 18 months after that I had to leave my home and distance myself from my friends to escape from him.”

As well as making it through the X Factor auditions – she’s up in the six chair challenge for the ‘Overs’ tonight – Marianna’s turned her life around and become an ambassador for domestic abuse charity Women’s Trust.