Jungle Marc beat me up
I'M A CELEBRITY EXCLUSIVE
By Louise Ford And Grant Hodgson
Louise.Ford@Sundaymirror.Co.Uk
Marc Bannerman's devastated girlfriend last night revealed that she has dumped the jungle rat for good - and told how he viciously beat her up during their tempestuous two year relationship.
Sarah Matravers said she was left bruised and battered after Marc tore into her during a drink-fuelled fight.
The beautiful actress told Marc it was all over on Thursday night when he was voted out of the jungle camp in I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here, where he had humiliated Sarah by falling head-over-heels for singer Cerys Matthews.
Recalling their shocking fight, Sarah, 33, told the Sunday Mirror: "I was very, very scared. I remember thinking, 'he's a bloke, he shouldn't be doing this to me'. I had bruises where he slapped me and bruises and scuffs on my body."
Sarah said she was so terrified during the assault by the former EastEnders actor that she plunged her arm through a window pane, believing it was the only way to stop him beating her.
"I put my arm through the window in pure desperation. It was all I could think of doing," she said. "Yes, I've got a scar on my arm from it, but it worked. It stopped. Who knows where it could have gone - we could have unintentionally inflicted really very serious harm on each other."
Choking back tears, she added: "I have no idea how long the fight lasted for. There was a bruise on my back and I had 10 stitches to my arm so it was pretty nasty." Sarah decided to speak out about her terrifying ordeal - which happened at their home last February - after watching the ITV1 show in disbelief while her 34-year-old lover spent 11 days flirting with former Catatonia singer Cerys, 36.
She told him their twoyear relationship was over in an emotional two-hour phone call on Thursday night after he was booted off the show by public vote.
Wiping away tears, she said: "I was shouting at him, 'Are you in love with Cerys? Yes or no, yes or no?'
He couldn't seem to answer. He just said, 'I don't know' and 'Sorry' over and over again. He didn't really make anything clearer to me, I'm absolutely devastated. He tried to defend himself saying he didn't do anything 'overly physical' with Cerys. But to see him saying he was in love with her on TV, that's heartbreaking.
"I told him it was over. I said if he can't make a decision, then I'll make a decision for him. That's it. He didn't say much."
There was more pain for Sarah yesterday when an emotional love note from Marc to Cerys was read out in the jungle camp (see story top right).
Sarah said last night: "I don't care what happens with them now. He's dumped, it's all over and if he thinks he can come back grovelling he can think again.
"It honestly feels like my partner has died ... and people don't come back from the dead."
Marc became the first contestant voted off the show after repeatedly kissing and cuddling Cerys in the jungle camp. He said he knew he'd be in trouble with Sarah - then made matters worse by saying on camera after the show: "I'm in love with two women."
Ironically, it was his own jealousy that sparked the drunken row in February last year. Sarah said they began bickering after a drunken party for the end of filming at ITV spin-off drama Footballers Wives: Extra Time, in which they played a married couple.
Marc claimed Sarah had flirted with men at the party and the argument spiralled out of control when they got back to his flat in North London. She says the 6ft actor started slapping her, with a series of blows to her face.
"We'd both drunk a lot and we'd had arguments before. At that stage I was walking out on him and getting back almost every week.
"Marc thought there was something going on with me and another actor - it got blown out of proportion - and by the time we got home we were in a drink-filled haze. He slapped me in the face and I was punching him. At one point we were wrestling on the floor. I was going at him, punching his stomach, but he was really going at me."
Desperate to stop it, and in a moment of madness, Sarah plunged her right arm through the glass panel, causing a deep gash.
Marc called an ambulance and she was taken to hospital where she gave a statement to police who later arrested Marc and charged him with assaulting his girlfriend.
Sarah recalled: "I went to hospital alone, I was completely numb. At the hospital I had 10 stitches and a friend came to help me. Then the police took as a statement and before I knew it Marc was arrested.
"To be honest, I didn't really know what was happening."
Days later Sarah dropped the charges, telling police she was too drunk to remember how she got her bruises. She said: "As horrible as it was, I didn't want him to get a conviction, I wanted to protect Marc because I didn't feel that either of us were bad people.
"I didn't speak to him for a week and stayed with my mum. I didn't want to see him - I was very, very traumatised and went to see a counsellor to deal with it.
"Marc was beside himself, utterly mortified. The following week, I went to see him in London and we slowly worked through it again."
Prosecutors decided to go ahead with the case without Sarah - but later dropped the case. Marc denied the assault at the time.
Now Sarah says: "It was the first time he had hurt me like that. I always knew he had a temper and there was the odd push and a shove between us. We would say horrible things to each other, slam doors and throw things.
"But after that horrible day, we vowed to stop drinking and rowing and to build a life together. And it never happened again."
Sarah's mum Patricia Page said: "When I saw her she was like a little old lady beaten to a pulp. She was thoroughly bruised and battered... for a mother, it was a horrific sight.
"She was broken emotionally and physically. It was totally unforgivable and we haven't welcomed him into our home.
"Now everyone has seen him show his true colours. I've been watching I'm A Celebrity in absolute horror. We never expected Sarah to take Marc back after the beating, and now we pray she draws a line completely."
Sarah says she and Marc had just finished re-decorating their three-bedroom family home and were trying for a family before he left for Australia.
He told me he was going out to the jungle for our babies. He went out there for our future and I've had to watch that slip away from me. I'm A Celebrity has ruined my life."
Sarah had flown out to Australia last week, hoping Marc's closeness to Cerys was just harmless fun.
But as she watched his love for the blonde singer blossom on the TV in her hotel room, friends became so worried about her state of mind they put her on a flight back home.
She said: "It was utter torture. All I ate was half a sandwich and a tiny bowl of spaghetti. I didn't leave the hotel once.
"The worst part was seeing them sitting looking into each other's eyes, putting their hands over their mouth and wanting to kiss. And when he was talking to John (Burton Race) about what he had with Cerys, Marc looked elated, like a love-struck teenager.
"I sobbed my heart out. I started drinking again... my whole life was unravelling."
Marc was voted out as Sarah was on her way home and had left her a voicemail, saying: "I'm really sorry, mate." Sarah said: "I couldn't believe he called me 'mate'. He's never called me that. That said a lot."
Marc flew into Heathrow at 5pm yesterday and said: "I just want to see my mum."
Later he called Sarah to say he was staying with a friend. Incredibly, in the background was Cerys's voice. He was playing her hit single Road Rage, which goes: "It's all over the front page, you give me road rage."
Mirror
