Megan Barton Hanson reveals her rape and ‘stealthing’ trauma at the hands of abusive ex who attacked her after she had an abortion: ‘I feared he was going to kill me’

She is one of the country’s richest influencers and is estimated to be worth more than £2 million.

But Megan Barton Hanson, the Love Island star who shot to fame after appearing on the ITV reality show in 2018, says it took her 11 years to realize she was once the victim of a truly horrific and intimate crime.

She says she was in love with a new boyfriend, and at age 19, she was relatively inexperienced when it came to making out when the incident occurred. During sex, her boyfriend removed his condom without her consent, she says.

Just a fortnight ago she found out that this act – called stealth – constitutes rape and is therefore punishable by a custodial sentence.

Her brutal discovery that she had been the victim of a serious sex crime came while taking part in a podcast with relationship expert Paul Carrick Brunson. As the reality sank in, she said her whole body burned as she accepted that she had been raped without her knowledge.

In an exclusive interview with MailOnlineformer Love Island star Megan, 30, said: ‘I literally heard about it on the podcast with Paul. We were going through my life journey, I touched on this topic that I had never talked about publicly before.

“He said, ‘You know this is rape,’ and I thought, ‘No, it’s not.’

‘I didn’t know if I was denying myself because I fully agreed to have sex with my partner, my boyfriend of six months.

‘Paul then said, ‘Yes, but you did not agree to him removing the condom without your knowledge.’

It was a stomach-churning moment for Megan, whose fans know her for her openness in relationship matters.

She looks sad as she tells me, “It was a lot to process. I felt sad for my younger self. I was a baby, I was 19, he was only my second sexual partner. I was so naive. I wanted to give my younger self a hug.

‘My whole body was burning, the back of my neck was hot, I thought ‘no way’.

Worse still, by taking off his condom, her boyfriend, whom she does not want to name, got her pregnant.

“It wasn’t until morning sickness that made me realize that,” she tells me now.

Megan and her then-boyfriend chose to terminate the pregnancy, but her ex flew into a violent rage on the way home from the procedure.

She recalled: ‘He said, ‘You’re disgusting. You just killed our baby.”

Megan, who says she is a feminist, has decided to speak out now to educate young women about how this particular type of contraception can be misused – and the consequences that can result.

“It’s also about sexually transmitted diseases,” she says. ‘When you have sex, you agree to protection. It’s baffling that anyone would think to do it without you knowing, when it’s one of the most intimate things.

“Everyone is aware it’s immoral, but people don’t know it’s a crime.”

The incident happened in 2013, a tense time in Megan’s life. She had just gotten a job at a law firm and found a new boyfriend.

But a few months into their relationship, she felt like he was starting to take control.

One night while arguing about what to watch on television, she said he hit her with the remote control.

“At first I wasn’t afraid of him, but then he hit me with the check, which was a red flag,” she said.

On another occasion, during a trip to London, Megan says he shouted at her and became physically aggressive.

‘He touched my hand. He then grabbed me by the throat near a wall and tried to strangle me. I stood up for myself and told him I would break up with him if he did that again.”

Shocked when she discovered a few months later that she was pregnant – and still living with her parents – she decided to book a termination agreement because she was so young herself.

Her boyfriend said he would support her, but before having the procedure, she says, he rubbed her stomach in an attempt, she thinks, to “subconsciously talk me out of it.”

The day of the termination became by far the scariest of Megan’s life.

She took the first tablet, which helps prepare the body for the next dose of medicine, but ten minutes into their journey home, driven by her boyfriend’s mother, he became furious.

‘It was like a switch turned on. He said, “I can’t believe you did it.”

‘Then he forced me and his mother to get out. I was afraid he would kill me. It was a lot, I had experienced a termination, that was enough to process on its own. I just stood there and tried to calm him down.”

She then claims he viciously attacked her, punching her and wrapping a seatbelt around her neck.

She says he also bit her nose and started filming her with his phone, telling her to tell the camera that she had just gotten rid of their baby.

Megan eventually managed to return to her parents’ house.

“As soon as I got home, I locked the doors,” Megan said. ‘I was shaking, terrified and struggling to breathe.’

Then, she says, her boyfriend arrived with a crowbar and tried to break down the front door. Megan took her mother’s car keys and she and her mother drove away and called the police.

The man was later charged and convicted of two counts of assault, ABH and criminal damage. He was sentenced to one and a half months in prison.

Megan admits she has had ‘hours’ of therapy, which cost her ‘a lot of money’.

“I’ve had all different kinds,” she admits. ‘I tried cognitive behavioral therapy, which helped because it gave me tools when [I’m] falling into a spiral or having negative thoughts.

“I still have it on and off. I haven’t had it for five or six months, but I’d like to check.”

Megan has decided to speak out to raise awareness about stealth and is making a plea for the government to educate young people about it when they are at school.

She fears that women who go to the police to say they are victims of stealth will also not be believed because there is no evidence. Additionally, Megan wants to encourage women to be vigilant by keeping the word in mind.

Meanwhile, the star calls yoga and meditation important to regain her balance.

Life has moved on and she is so happy that she refuses to let the incident define the rest of her life.

She said: ‘I try not to get too attached to labels. As humans, we love to put people in boxes, especially women.

‘You are an academic woman, a sexy woman or a funny woman. And rape can also be a label.

‘But I have dealt with my trauma. It’s my experience and I’ve dealt with it.’

You can contact Rape Crisis England & Wales on a 24/7 support line by calling 0808 500 2222 or visit https://rapecrisis.org.uk for more information

You can call the National Domestic Abuse Helpline 24 hours a day free of charge and in confidence on 0808 2000 247