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when it comes to schooling or on paper. I've experienced more education through life's experiences, through traveling, and through getting myself into certain situations, whether it be through work and dealing with contracts or from talking to the man down the street who's waiting for his bus. Obviously, the situation with your most recent ex, Stephen Belafonte is extremely contentious. But in general, how are you navigating co-parenting with three different fathers in the picture? MB: My oldest is 19, so I had to do every other weekend and certain weekdays for eighteen years, and there's a point where your 14 or 15-year-old doesn't want to go to her father and that's a difficult task. I've never said a bad word about any of their fathers to my daughters. Angel's 11 years old and she sees her dad [Eddie Murphy] on a regular basis. She's actually going to his house next week to do the family Christmas card, which is really lovely. My 7-year- old, Madison, that's all happening through the court, so that is kind of out of my hands. One thing I do with all my three girls, is I make sure they know that they're loved, and that they came from a place of a loving relationship. Even though they didn't quite work out, and me and their dads didn't stay together, they all know that they came from a lot of love. One thing that is mandatory is that I always make it a very exciting thing when I send them off to their fathers. Angel is different, because me and her dad don't have any problems with each other. With Madison [her daughter with ex-husband, Belafonte], they take everything in, so I try to make it exciting for her, even though I obviously have huge issues with her father. Based on the abuse you've described in your book, aren't you frightened for Madison to be around her father? MB: I don't think it's fair for me to say that. All I can say is that I fought through the courts for her to have mandatory therapy every Saturday with a specialized therapist who is very aware of the situation. If there was anything for the therapist to be concerned about she would be able to flag it, based on the kind of intense therapy that she is doing with Madison. I have to trust and believe that if there was anything that I should be majorly concerned about, I've got a professional right there that can spot it before I do. I would imagine it took courage to keep a lot of these passages in the book. What was the hardest part, not just to write, but to keep in the final draft of the book? MB: Everything that is out there now is pretty salacious, and I know it seems so random about the sex and the drugs. The physical and emotional abuse had already kind of been out there, whether it be just a journalist presuming or whether it be my ex getting a story out there somehow. I just wanted to make sure that I clarified and made my puzzle understandable. When you read my book, you do understand that certain things were due to coping mechanisms, which are very common with somebody that's in an abusive relationship. The book addresses things like why it took me so long to leave. It's because you're trapped, and you don't have friends and family because you've been isolated due to how your abuser does things. That's why in the back of my book, I put the 15 warning signs of what an abusive relationship looks like. Sometimes we don't know until it is too late, and you're heavily in it. In my book, I address an array of points and situations that hopefully make the reader understand everything that I've been through. There are certain things I did leave out due to legal reasons. I didn't want it to be a legal war. I wanted my book to be more of an education and insight into what it looks like to be in an abusive relationship. You paint a picture of a wide range of abusive behaviors that you experienced. MB: Right, because abuse isn't just physical. It can be verbal, it can be emotional. It's a broad spectrum. And usually an abuser doesn't just do one type of abuse. They get you on every single level, eventually. I hear everything you're saying, but here is the piece I don't quite understand. From reading your book, I got the impression that even after everything that went on, your parents remained steadfast in their support of you as their child. I got the impression that at any time you could have flown home for refuge and you would have been met with open arms. MB: No way. How could I do that? How could I book a flight when he had my credit cards and my phone? I'm not allowed to leave the house, I don't have a front door key. I'm working 24 hours. I didn't even have a holiday. And your every move is being monitored by your abuser. Every phone call, every text message. How about from work? Even a phone call from work? MB: I wasn't allowed to take my phone to work. And like I said, this doesn't just happen overnight. They chip away at you, so you wind up going, "Oh, he took my phone because he wanted to