Jennifer Ellison has bravely opened up about the harrowing domestic abuse she endured during her relationship with Liverpool gangster Tony Richardson, revealing she feared for her life and used his infidelity as a 'get out of jail free card' to leave.
A Promising Career Overshadowed by Danger
After her breakthrough role as Emily Shadwick in Channel 4's controversial soap Brookside, Jennifer Ellison seemed destined for A-list stardom. She landed a part opposite Gerard Butler and Patrick Wilson in the 2004 Hollywood musical The Phantom of the Opera. However, just as her career was taking off, her home became the scene of a frightening firearms incident. While entering the realm of Hollywood success, she found herself entangled in the dangerous world of serious organised crime.
The Relationship with Tony Richardson
Jennifer had been involved with Liverpool criminal Tony Richardson, who received an eight-year prison sentence in 2011 following a sword assault. Reflecting on the relationship, she said: 'It was a volatile relationship and he was connected with this gangland world. I was having nails in my letter box, going into hiding and fearing for my life walking down the street. For years I thought bad things like that happened to everyone. It was so traumatic.'
Beyond the threat of attacks from the criminal underworld, there was a persistent menace from Richardson himself. Jennifer told the Daily Mail: 'I was terrified to leave, but then he got caught cheating so it was my get out of jail free card. It meant I wasn't going to get my face slashed if I left him and I could go without there being any repercussions.'
A Pattern of Abuse from a Young Age
Jennifer began her relationship with Richardson when she was just 16 years old. She endured a horrific pattern of abuse, revealing to Cosmopolitan in 2013: 'He'd criticise how I looked, accuse me of flirting with other men and question me all the time about who I'd been with and where I'd been.'
Richardson also displayed a brutal streak. Jennifer recalled: 'Once, about six years ago, he smashed me over the head with a beer bottle in front of all my friends. My face, eyes, hair and mini dress were covered in blood. I was told Tony ran out of the London club we were in, chased by bouncers.' For years, she concealed the true extent of his aggression from those closest to her. 'I can't tell you how many times I lied to protect him. When he broke my collarbone in 2005, I told doctors I'd fallen, because I thought it was my fault.'
Confronting the Trauma
Looking back, Jennifer acknowledges it took considerable time before she properly confronted the ordeal. 'I don't think I dealt with it,' she said. 'I think I just locked it away because I had to continue.' Years after the relationship ended, she continued to bear the scars.
Her participation in 2022's Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins reopened painful memories. During the programme's famous mirror room, she spoke to former Commando Jason 'Foxy' Fox, admitting her life with Richardson left her feeling worthless. She explained: 'It was a volatile relationship and he was connected with this other world, this gangland world. For years and years I thought that life was normal and bad things like that happened to everyone because it happened in the world I was in.'
'I was having nails in my letter box, going into hiding and fearing for my life walking down the street. That's not normal,' she added. 'It's just been one of those things that I kind of buried, just kind of got on with life and got on with everything. I look back and think how it was so traumatic. It was so horrific what I was going through. I was such a young girl, I was a baby. I feel like opening up in the mirror room about that has put that part of my life to bed. It was like the best therapy session ever.'
A New Chapter
Years after her separation from Richardson, Jennifer's life has become settled and tranquil. She now focuses on her family and running her dance school. Jennifer met boxer Rob Tickle in 2008, and the couple married in Mauritius the following year. They have remained happily united ever since, with Jennifer becoming a mother to their three boys: Bobby, 12, Harry, seven, and Charlie, six. She is also stepmother to two daughters, Sophie and Chloe, both 24.
