Taraji P. Henson Opens up About Past Abusive Relationship

In her autobiography, Taraji gets real about her past relationship with her deceased ex.

And she recalls the very dark moment of her life.

PEOPLE writes:

In her upcoming memoir, Around The Way Girl, Henson reveals that she broke off her relationship with the love of her life, whom she refers to only as Mark, after he allegedly hit her — only to have him die violently at just 34.

Now a single mother to their 22-year-old son, Marcell, the actress proves she is just as strong as Cookie Lyon, the character she plays on FOX’s popular show Empire.

In the new book, out Oct. 11, Henson explains that she first met Mark when she was just 17 years old. From the beginning it was a passionate but turbulent relationship, in part because Mark felt he was somehow inferior to Henson.

“You’re better than me,” she recalls him saying to her, while she rested in his arms. “You need to leave me alone.”

They broke up and Mark went on to father two children with separate women. However, the pair got together in the early ’90s when Henson was at Howard University where she studied theater.

Henson stayed in school during her pregnancy and initially felt supported by Mark, but writes that things began to unravel after Marcell’s birth. She recalls that the stress of a new baby, working and Mark’s disappearances late at night resulted in a huge fight one night that turned physical.

“The next thing I knew, Mark’s balled-up fist was coming straight for my face. I fell onto the bed crying and holding my mouth; blood seeped off my lips and across my teeth,” Henson writes. “Droplets splashed across my shoes … slowly creeping into the fibers of my suede boots.”

After she saw the blood, Henson writes that she screamed at him: “This is over! Get your s— and get out!”

Though her father encouraged them to reconcile, Henson ended the relationship — for the well-being of herself and her baby.

“With that separation, my forever man, my first love, was no more,” she writes