Эксперт по отношениям раскрыл три главных признака токсичных связей в новом документальном сериале

Paul C. Brunson has spent his career sharing the recipe for healthy relationships, now he's revealing the warning signs that lead to toxic ones. The relationship expert is best known for fronting romance experiments like Celebs Go Dating, as well as conducting deep interviews with well-known stars on his We Need to Talk Podcast. But his newest venture has taken him into the true crime space. The 52-year-old is hosting Red Flag, a documentary series that gives survivors of toxic relationships a platform to tell their brave stories in their own words. Paul interviews a new contributor in each of the eight episodes and helps them understand the hidden warning signs their abusive partner tried to hide. More than 17 years since he first stepped into the world of matchmaking, Paul considers himself a "dinosaur" of the industry. But even he was shocked to discover that the abusive tactics were almost identical in each of the survivors' stories. Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, the famed presenter outlined that there are three dating red flags that were repeated in each instance of abuse. Paul revealed: "What I saw with each of the survivors is the playbook, if you will, that the abusers use was always the same. "Always the same, this was the biggest epiphany. They would do it differently but it was always the same. One was to always accelerate the relationship quickly. Make them [the victim] feel as if they're closer than what they actually are." This behaviour is often referred to as "love bombing" but it isn't always characterised by lavish gifts or early declarations of love. In one of the survivors' stories, she recalled a unique example in which her ex partner asked to meet her family members within just two weeks of dating. Paul went on to explain the second tell-tale sign, saying: "Number two was distance the person from their friends and family. 'Oh, your friends don't care about you. Oh, your family doesn't care about you'. Distance them, sometimes even physically." He continued: " The third is then make the survivor dependent on the abuser. 'I'm the only one who cares about you. I'm the only one who will ever look out for your wellbeing.' "Those three happened with every single one of our survivors. Then what ends up manifesting are different things. As a result of that, some are physically assaulted, some are sexually assaulted." The pattern became so clear that Paul was confident he knew what he was going to hear by the time he sat down with the fourth survivor. "I was like 'I know what I'm going to hear. I'm going to hear it in a different way, but I know what I'm going to hear,'" he explained. Paul C. Brunson: Red Flag streams from Tuesday 8 September on U&W and U For confidential support, call the 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Freephone Helpline on 0808 2000 247 or visit womensaid.co.uk. If you or your family have lost a friend or family member through fatal domestic abuse, AAFDA (Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse) can offer specialist and expert support and advocacy.