Anna Maria Tremonti has been keeping her past a secret for over 40 years. As one of Canada’s most respected journalists, she has a reputation for being fearless. She’s reported from some of the world’s most dangerous conflict zones. But there’s one story she’s never made public: when she was 23 years old, she married a man who became physically abusive.

Their marriage only lasted one year but the consequences of that abuse lasted a lifetime. New CBC Podcasts series WELCOME TO PARADISE is the first time Anna Maria has told anyone—including family or close friends—the details of what she endured. Working with her therapist in the podcast, she reveals a part of her past she’s kept to herself for most of her life. The result is a profoundly intimate portrait of a powerful woman confronting the source of tremendous pain and trauma of intimate partner abuse and, remarkably, freeing herself from a life-long sense of shame.