'i wouldn't be alive today'
GMB presenter Ruth Dodsworth reveals horrifying moment her kids rung to warn their dad would kill her if she came home
GOOD Morning Britain weather presenter Ruth Dodsworth has revealed the horrifying moment her children called to warn her their dad was going to kill her if she came home.
The 46-year-old's husband Jonathan Wignall, 54, was jailed last week after admitting controlling and coercive behaviour.
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Their children witnessed the sickening abuse over a nine-year period, which included controlling behaviour, harassment and stalking.
Ruth - a regular weather present on regional news in London and Wales - told This Morning how her "frighteningly unpredictable and extremely volatile" husband ripped her life apart.
Bravely speaking out to encourage other victims to seek help, Ruth said: "At its worst, just under two years ago when things really escalated, I had been in work.
"During that week he had been phoning me hundreds and hundreds of times a day, turning up at the office, messages asking me who I was with.
"And that particular day he started drinking early in the day. By the time my children got home from school they were ringing me saying 'mum, don't come home. He is going to kill you.'
"For me, that was a turning point. If I had gone home that night, I wouldn't be here in any shape or form.
"It took confiding in someone else for them to say, 'Ruth, if you don't call the police, I will' and that changed everything.
"I wouldn't be alive if I hadn't reached out for help."
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Ruth - who appears on Good Morning Britain and This Morning to present the weather - kept the abuse secret from friends and family,
She decided to leave her husband after 17 years of marriage when he bombarded her with more than 150 phone calls in one day.
After they split, Wignall placed a tracking device under the steering wheel of her car so he could monitor where she was.
The court heard Wignall would also set alarms on his phone for when she was scheduled to present the weather.
Wignall was found guilty of a nine-year period of abuse which included controlling behaviour, harassment and stalking against Ruth while they were married.
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He was jailed for three years and handed a restraining order banning him from contacting his wife.
Ruth has been one of the main faces of ITV Wales since she first began her career at the company as a news reporter in 1996.
She then switched to the role of weather presenter four years later in 2000.
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