Actress Robin Givens has serious concerns about how she will be portrayed in the upcoming Mike Tyson biopic.
“I felt this drop in the pit of my stomach and was like, ‘Oh no, here we go again,'” the actress, 55, told People. She said that upon hearing the project was in development, she “felt like the world was crumbling again.”
The couple, who were briefly married in the late 1980s, has acknowledged that physical abuse occurred in the marriage.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey more than 20 years later, Tyson admitted, “I have socked her before, and she socked me before as well. It was just that kind of relationship.”
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Givens said that she felt unnerved because despite their short marriage years ago, she contends, Tyson is “still saying slanderous things on his podcast.”
“He’s not physically hitting me anymore,” she said, “but it hurts almost as much.”
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Givens said that after their divorce in 1988, Tyson vowed to “make your life so miserable, you’re going to slit your own throat and die.”
Earlier this year, she had her attorney send a cease-and-desist letter to the producers of the upcoming biopic, hoping to prevent her likeness from being used.
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In the film, titled Finding Mike, Jamie Foxx will portray the legendary boxer.
Reps for Tyson told People that “there isn’t nor has there been any intention” of including Givens in the biopic.
She said she is “more than relieved.”
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Even after many years, Givens still identifies closely with domestic violence survivors. Speaking to the magazine during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, she said, “My story was very public, but when I speak to women, and I sit in shelters and I hold children, I realize that the details of our stories are the same.”
The actress-director regularly volunteers with the National Domestic Violence Hotline, traveling the country and speaking to other survivors.
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