Domestic Violence Crisis Now Impacts 1 in 2 Women, with Oprah and author Rachel Louise Snyder
6/23/20261 hr 2 min
When Oprah first addressed the topic of domestic violence back in 1986, one out of four women in the United States was impacted by domestic violence. Today, that number has escalated to one out of two women who will experience sexual violence, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime. In this episode Oprah talks with journalist, writer and professor Rachel Louise Snyder. She is the author of the award-winning bestseller, No Visible Bruises, where she explores the domestic violence epidemic and how to combat it. She explains why domestic violence is becoming more prevalent, why a better term for it is “intimate partner terrorism,” the signs to look out for and what steps women can take to protect themselves and their families. Oprah and Rachel are joined by Susan, a former Oprah Show guest, who endured 17 years of physical and emotional abuse by her former husband - some of which her husband forced her then 13-year-old son to record on video. Also, in the fatal Ohio home invasion that grabbed headlines, the sister and brother-in-law of married couple Spencer and Monique Tepe join to talk about how Monique had experienced years of threatening behavior and emotional abuse from her surgeon ex-husband before he killed them both in their home in December 2025.
BUY THE BOOK!
https://www.amazon.com/No-Visible-Bruises-Domestic-Violence/
00:00:00 - Welcome Rachel Louise Snyder, author of “No Visible Bruises”
00:03:40 - Types of domestic violence
00:06:45 - Domestic violence vs. intimate terrorism
00:12:20 - The question: Why do you stay
00:14:57 - Seeing the signs
00:17:33 - Last act before homicide
00:19:00 - Rachel’s observation of abusive men
00:20:30 - Violence and addiction
00:24:24 - Susan’s story from The Oprah Winfrey Show
00:28:20 - Survivor Susan joins
00:35:20 - Susan’s son Dazmann joins
00:42:00 - Susan’s message to other women
00:43:10 - A DV tragedy rocked couple’s life
00:49:45 - What couple wants others to know
00:51:10 - Rachel’s personal connection to DV
NEED HELP?
If you or someone you know needs support, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available for anonymous, confidential help 24/7. Call 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or 1-800-787-3224 (TTY) or visit the website below.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsOprah Winfrey· Host0:00
One in two women in the United States will experience sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetimes. Research shows that the most dangerous place for a woman is right inside her own home. I had a conversation with this woman, Susan, who was a mother of three who had endured 17 years of physical and emotional abuse by her husband. We all have asked this question over the years, why do you stay? Why do you stay? And you say we should be asking the question, why is he violent? [music] Hi, and welcome to the Oprah Podcast. You know, over the years, uh, I've been talking about domestic violence for women. We did more than 120 Oprah shows on domestic violence. I first started talking about it in 1986. Uh, that's when, the year the, the show was launched, and back then, the stats in 1986 were one out of four women were impacted by some form of domestic violence. And now, 2026, after all of that talking, and all of those years, and all that we know, and women's self-awakening and self-empowerment, things have not gotten better. They've actually gotten worse. The current stats are one in two, one in two women in the United States will experience