Jana Kramer has had horrible luck with men. This much is becoming painfully obvious the more we hear from the actress and singer. The former One Tree Hill star and ongoing Dancing with the Stars contestant married Mike Claussin in May of 2015 and welcomed a baby with him in January… only to them separate from the ex-NFL player just a few months later. Via an Instagram video of herself singing along to the Carrie Underwood track “Before He Cheats,” Kramer then strongly implied that Claussin cheated on her . There’s been talk since that Claussin in a sex addict . “It’s a tough time,” Kramer told Us Weekly recently, saying of her chance to compete on Dancing with the Stars: It’s been fun to just work on me. It’s not just about dance. It’s about gaining confidence.” So that sucks a lot for Kramer. But not nearly as much as what happened to her in her first marriage. In the latest issue of People Magazine, Kramer opens up about her painful history of domestic abuse that landed first husband Michael Gambino in jail for attempted murder in 2005. “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,” Kramer explains “At the time, I liked that. I felt protected.” Gambino was 36 years old at the time. The couple dated for just two weeks – yes, two weeks – before getting married in 2004. And that’s when things turned very ugly. According to Kramer, Gambino developed an abusive routine that led Kramer to sleep in her car some nights … or even hide in the bushes until he calmed down. He had a short fuse and was often jealous, she says, explaining how “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.” Kramer says she hid her bruises with makeup and kept the abuse a secret from family members and friends. Finally, Kramer reached her breaking point. But Gambino wasn’t receptive. “When I said, ‘I can’t do this anymore’ 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 says. “ He’d kick me out of the house, I’d sleep in the car and then that next morning I’d be with him in bed again.” On August 6, 2005, Gambino chocked Kramer to the point of unconsciousness; he left her bleeding on the gravel outside their Los Angeles residence. “I remember praying that night, ‘Please, just take me away, I don’t want to be here anymore’,” says Kramer, who has scars on her shoulder and arm from that evening. But it at least got the police involved. Gambino was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to six years behind bars. He was released in 2010 and committed suicide two years later. To her credit, Kramer is coming forward now about this harrowing experience because she wants to serve as a role model “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,” she tells People. “If I can help one person, I’ll be thankful for what happened – and I can move forward.”
Original post:
Jana Kramer: My First Husband Tried to Kill Me!
