Rugby star and Dancing with the Stars alum Jordan Conroy is a ray of sunshine.
As soon as he walks into the room, everyone brightens up immediately.
He’s fun and easy-going, but Jordan tells VIP Magazine that it wasn’t an easy road to get to where he is now.
Speaking to us in our July issue, the Olympian explains: “I was a child of domestic abuse and I didn’t talk about it at all for a while, which was probably a mistake but I was only a kid.
“Growing up through the years, I’ve held on to that trauma. For me at the time and probably for my mother too, the easiest thing was to lock it away.”
He goes on to say that growing up in Germany was a “difficult time” for him.
At the age of nine, Jordan, his mum and sister fled their home in Germany, after suffering at the hands of his stepfather
“It created a lot of anger in me, a lot of anxiety, as a child I was always on edge. It was difficult to comprehend what was happening at home, to see your caregiver, your protector, being beaten.”
He tells us: “It’s very difficult to intervene when you’re so small. I couldn’t do a lot, and I took that to heart. It was very strange to have so much hate for one person. As a child, you shouldn’t have those emotions in you, and seeing that, was just horrible.”
He admits that his “brave” mother escaped with her two young children with “two suitcases”, leaving Germany and heading to Ireland.
“Who knows where we’d be if we didn’t leave? I was so young, and that was the danger of it because it could have come with me throughout this walk of life.”
He goes on to say: “I don’t remember a lot of it, just the worst parts of that time. Getting away from it at an early age did help, escaping into the safe haven which was Ireland. So yeah, it was a traumatic time.
“Every time he was around, we were uneasy and the atmosphere was awful. The first part of my childhood was dark, and not a good one.”
Pick up the July issue of VIP Magazine to read our full interview with Jordan