Elizabeth Chambers says she was studying about ex-husband Armie Hammer’s sexual abuse allegations and fetishes “as the general public was,” and it left her speechless.
In a profile for Elle printed Wednesday, the previous Present TV anchor and Chicken bakery proprietor opened up about how she and Hammer fell in love, how their relationship was reshaped by his growing fame and the way in the direction of the tip — across the identical time because the allegations emerged — he had grow to be “the worst.”
Discussing how their relationship fell aside whereas within the Cayman Islands throughout the COVID-19 lockdown, Chambers provided a special take than the one Hammer gave in a British GQ profile printed in September 2020, the place he described feeling like a wolf “caught in a snare” and known as the strain the byproduct of a “very difficult, intense state of affairs, with large personalities all locked in a little bit tiny place.”
For Chambers, “his habits was much less caged animal and extra irritating,” in keeping with Elle. Their marriage had already been deteriorating, together with her recalling that they have been spending much less time collectively and at one banquet “they didn’t even speak [to each other].”
The breaking level of their union, which had been beforehand examined, was Hammer’s choice to depart her and his children within the Caymans to assist restore a motel outdoors Joshua Tree Nationwide Park with a good friend. “He was the worst,” she recalled. “My coronary heart was damaged in 9 million items, and I nonetheless drove him to the airport.”
“Marriage is at all times going to be troublesome, and, as with all relationship, you undergo a course of,” Chambers added, noting that it wasn’t fully a transparent, constant line to their divorce. “Particularly for those who throw success and fame into the combo; it simply turns into extra magnified.”
Chambers, who filed for divorce in L.A. Superior Court docket in July 2020, added that “the dissolution of my household” was her largest worry. “You may give, you possibly can love, you will be there for somebody, however you additionally want to carry individuals accountable for his or her actions.”
After their separation, allegations round Hammer’s sexual fetishes and habits, which included unverified social media messages allegedly from the actor that expressed curiosity in cannibalism, started to floor. (Hammer has denied them.) The bakery proprietor and mom stated she was shocked. “I used to be studying issues as the general public was,” Chambers defined. “I used to be like, ‘There are not any phrases. What the fuck?’”
She expressed that no matter her ex-husband’s curiosity, in their very own marriage “boundaries” have been a key associate of their relationship. “[Over time] your associate is studying issues about themselves,” she famous. “They’re rising, you’re rising; you hope that you just’re rising collectively.”
As a substitute, she skilled an entire 180-degree flip from the sooner years of their marriage, which she says felt “utterly magical” as she traveled with him to film shoots and on press excursions.
Chambers declined to answer Hammer’s recent Air Mail interview — his first main sit-down because the allegations — however in a chunk printed on Feb. 4, the actor continued to disclaim prison wrongdoing in relation to the 2021 allegations of sexual misconduct that have been highlighted within the House of Hammer docuseries.
At the least a type of claims — which included screenshots of alleged communications between ladies and Hammer — concerned a high-profile social media character, who, in keeping with the Air Mail article, allegedly referred to herself as “chasing him” in a message to Hammer’s ex-wife. (The accuser declined to reply questions for the Air Mail story.) Hammer described their interplay as a consensual non-consent scene.
He confirmed he had checked right into a therapy facility for substance abuse in Might 2021 after he was dropped by his talent agency and publicist and exited a number of tasks, together with Shotgun Wedding ceremony, Gaslit and The Supply. He additionally pointed to sexual abuse as a teen because the impetus for his curiosity in BDSM, and stated that following these allegations, he skilled suicidal ideation and survived a suicide try.
Within the aftermath of the allegations and the divorce, Chambers instructed Elle she was largely interested by her kids, with the sensation now gone of wanting their kids to be a mixture of herself and Hammer. “Do I need my son to grow to be this? Would I need my daughter to remain in a relationship like this?” she questions. “Sooner or later, I need them to have the ability to say, ‘I’m impartial of no matter has occurred in generations earlier than. I’m conscious of it, however I’m the individual I’m not due to the place I got here from.’”
She’s additionally very clear about Hammer’s actions not having something to do together with her. “The very last thing I ever need to do is let another person’s actions, which don’t have anything to do with me, make me offended,” she stated. “It’s not going to assist me, and it’s not going to assist anybody round me.”