CW: This article contains references to controlling relationships.

MANDY MOORE AND Ryan Adams met in 2007, began dating in 2008, got engaged in 2009, married that same year, and divorced in 2016 after parting ways the previous year.

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And in a damning New York Times report published last night, Mandy asserts that her relationship with the acclaimed singer, who is ten years her senior, was based on power and control.

In the article, which features accounts from various other women who allege misconduct against the 44-year-old performer over a number of years, Mandy reflects on a relationship mired in psychological abuse and ‘destructive’ behaviour.

“Music was a point of control for him,” she explained, as she remembered her attempts to carve out a music career removed from the pop genre she had become known for.

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“You’re not a real musician, because you don’t play an instrument,” Mandy claims Ryan told her.

His controlling behaviour essentially did block my ability to make new connections in the industry during a very pivotal and potentially lucrative time — my entire mid-to-late 20s.

Indeed, Mandy, who now stars in This Is Us, released her last album before they married, and thus far, hasn’t released any new music.

While The New York Times report features the accounts of various women and their alleged mistreatment at the hands of Adams, Mandy remembers her experience as feeling specific to her.

What you experience with him — the treatment, the destructive, manic sort of back and forth behaviour — feels so exclusive. You feel like there’s no way other people have been treated like this.

She has in recent times, however, connected with other women who have had relationships with the singer.

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Mandy, who is now married to Taylor Goldmith, refuses to let Ryan’s influence dictate her career path, telling The New York Times: “I want to make music. I’m not going to let Ryan stop me.”

Ryan has denied Mandy’s account of their relationship, with his lawyer asserting that Ryan was supportive of Mandy’s ‘well-deserved professional success’.

Did Mandy’s account of her marriage to Ryan strike a chord with you? Or, more specifically, have you any experience of a controlling partner and relationship?

If you need help or advice on issues raised in this article, you can contact Safe Ireland and Amen.

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