Well, with my 1st husband it was a little complicated and kind of wierd. We had been going together for a while and I really liked him at first. But then he became abusive so I tried breaking up with him many times. But then he would stalk me and harrass me until I finally caved in. Plus,my sister and brother-in-law, who were my legal guardians at the time, felt sorry for him and pressured me (no actually MADE me) stay with him figuring I could somehow "save him." He was also buying my shampoo, clothes and food, and they wanted me to stay with him so that they wouldn't have to do all that (I wanted to just get a job but they wouldn't let me for some odd reason). there was also a lot of religious abuse going on (long story) and, at 18, I sat down with them and told them I was breaking up with him. But they insisted that God "told them" that I had to marry this a**hole! I was confused, but I believed them.

After about three years, I realized that it wasn't GOD who wanted me to marry this guy. So I left him. But he kept stalking me for a couple years after that. There was this one guy who claimed he really loved me, so I married him hoping that my ex-husband would "get the point" and leave me alone--it worked. But I also married my 2nd husband because I was homeless and needed a place to live. I mean, I wasn't really out in the streets or anything, but I was "staying" with a family member who was so verbally abusive that I had to get out of there. Of course, that was also a big mistake. After we were married for a while, he finally admitted to me that the only reason he wanted to get married was because he wanted the "stigma" of marrying a white woman (he was Mexican). But there were other problems there--long story.