Janay Rice broke her months-long silence over the Thanksgiving holiday. In an interview with ESPN’s Jemele Hill that was done back in November but published over the weekend, Rice addressed the assault she survived by her husband, former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, and video of the incident that went viral and sparked a national discussion about domestic violence. 

Looking out over the media, I became angry, seeing all the people who had been covering this and adding to the story. I wanted to tell everyone what was really on my mind. When it was my turn to speak, I said I regretted my role in the incident. I know some people disagreed with me publicly apologizing. I’m not saying that what Ray did wasn’t wrong. He and I both know it was wrong. It’s been made clear to him that it was wrong. But at the same time, who am I to put my hands on somebody? I had already apologized to Ray, and I felt that I should take responsibility for what I did. Even though this followed the Ravens’ suggested script, I owned my words.

Later, she describes the fallout from her husband’s dismissal from the Ravens and indefinite suspension from the league (a decision that was recently overturned on appeal):

I’m a strong woman and I come from a strong family. Never in my life have I seen abuse, nor have I seen any woman in my family physically abused. I have always been taught to respect myself and to never allow myself to be disrespected, especially by a man. Growing up, my father used to always tell my sister and I, "We don’t need a man to make us, if anything it’s the man who needs us.

[snip]

I’ve learned a lot about myself. I’ve realized how strong I am. People ask me how I’ve gotten through this and I honestly cannot put it into words. I have grown closer to God. My faith has gotten me through each day. It’s been hard accepting the fact that God chose us for this, but at the same time it’s put us in the position to help others. We know our incident led to very important discussions to hashtags of "why I stayed" and "why I left." If it took our situation becoming headline news to show domestic violence is happening in this country, that’s a positive.

Read Rice’s full story at ESPN, or watch a portion below.