TV presenter says abusive ex gave her no access to her own money

TV presenter says abusive ex gave her no access to her own money3 hours agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleRosie MercerBBC WalesITV Wales / Mike GriffithsRuth Dodsworth has presented the weather for ITV Wales since 2000TV presenter Ruth Dodsworth has described how she had to ask her ex-husband for cash to buy herself anything after he gave her "absolutely no access" to her own money.Dodsworth's former husband Jonathan Wignall was jailed in 2021 for coercive and controlling behaviour and stalking.Dodsworth, best known for presenting the weather on ITV Wales, said she later discovered she had been left "absolutely penniless" and with debts in her name that she "knew nothing about". She also recalled the "bewilderment" of reporting Wignall to the police, adding she previously did not know what controlling behaviour was.Speaking on Ready to Talk with Emma Barnett, Dodsworth said she first met Wignall in her early 20s, adding he "was charismatic, he had money, [and] I just thought 'wow'".But she said their relationship changed after Wignall's nightclub business started to fail."He went from being effectively this larger than life successful business character to almost the other end of the scale," she said."What I was earning as a little bit of pocket money suddenly became the be-all-and-end-all… that shift in our relationship probably also marked a shift in his behaviour towards me."Ruth DodsworthDodsworth says she wants to show people that you can "rebuild" and have a happy life'Bank card disappeared'Dodsworth said money was one of the ways Wignall controlled her."It happened sort of slowly but surely," she said."My salary would go into my bank account but then he would take it out, so I would say in the last few years I had absolutely no access to my own money."She said having to ask for money allowed Wignall "to maintain that contr...