Lily Collins recounts facing 'verbal,' 'emotional abuse' in a past relationship

Lily Collins is opening up about a dark period of her life.

During an appearance on an episode of We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle podcast, the 33-year-old actress recalled the abuse she faced at the hands of a romantic relationship in the past.

"My romantic, toxic relationship was a lot of verbal and emotional abuse and being made to feel very small," she shared, adding that she started finding comfort in “silence” and “feeling like I had to make myself small” to feel safe.

Collins revealed that her ex would use “awful words” to refer to her, such as “Little Lily” and “whore” as a tactic to bring her down.

As a result, she started manifesting the repercussions of abuse by getting physically ill.

"My skin was breaking out. I was having these panic attacks and I had kidney infections," Lily explained. "All of these weird physical manifestations but I didn't, at that time of my life, put the two and two together as your body is telling you, ‘This is not something you're supposed to be in.'"

The Emily in Paris star said that she still gets triggered by the relationship even after a decade has passed.

"Even if I'm in the most healthy relationship, there can be a moment that happens throughout the day where history comes back like that," she said.

"Your gut reacts, your heart drops and all of the sudden you're taken back to that moment where they said that thing to you 10 years ago but you're not in that situation now," Collins added.