David Challen
Domestic Abuse Campaigner | Survivor | Advisor | Speaker | Writer | Freed my mum #SallyChallen in a landmark #CoerciveControl case, #SallysLaw ⚖️
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- Ours was the kind of family no one suspected. But behind closed doors, the harm escalated until it changed all our lives forever. Ten years on from coercive control becoming a crime, how far have we come? My piece in @observeruk.bsky.social
- I have NEVER said that I am relieved my mum killed my dad. This is a very clear distortion of my words and it is actual putrid bile. I have contacted the Daily Mirror.
- The Unthinkable has already reached more people than I ever imagined. Thank you to every reader who’s messaged, shared and told me this helped them name what they went through. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 🧍🏼👩🏼🤝👨🏻🧍🏼♂️🏠 Out Now ➡️ www.hachette.co.uk/titles/david...
- Grateful for men like Gareth progressing this discussion. Vital to note however that we can’t build better masculinity in silos. My empathy, like many men’s, came from women. Role models help, but this work must be done with women, not apart from them.
- My mum killed my dad after decades of his abuse. I fought to set her free. But once I did, I realised I needed to free myself too. I spoke with @mrjamesob.bsky.social about my book #TheUnthinkable + the unseen impact of coercive control on children. 🎧 Listen ➡️ www.globalplayer.com/catchup/lbc/...
- “I had no idea Mum had a little plastic stool behind the passenger seat and intended to drive to Beachy Head… and throw herself off.” This week, The Mail serialised my memoir The Unthinkable, the story to free my mother Sally Challen, and then myself. ➡️ archive.ph/2025.06.11-0...
- Huge thanks to the @glamour.com editorial team for picking #TheUnthinkable as one their must-read’s this month! ‘David dedicated his life to sharing his mother's story – now it's time to listen to his.’
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- Glad more print runs are underway! Blown away by the messages and responses so far to The Unthinkable, a book that’s fast become meaningful with many who’ve reached out. This is what it’s all about. 🧍🏼👫🧍🏼♂️🏠 #TheUnthinkable ➡️ www.hachette.co.uk/titles/david...
- Happy publication day to… The Unthinkable!!! 📚 🎉 🥂📚🎉 🥂 My mum killed my dad, I helped free her from prison. This is the story I walked, and what it cost. I never thought I’d write it and now, it’s out in the world! 🧍🏼👫🧍🏼♂️🏠 🚨 Order NOW! ➡️ www.hachette.co.uk/titles/david...
- #TheUnthinkable is out TOMORROW and just made the top 100 books on Amazon! 🖤🤍🖤🤍 🧍🏼👩🏼🤝👨🏻🧍🏼♂️🏠 Pre-order ➡️ www.hachette.co.uk/titles/david...
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- So lovely to catch up with Ranvir Singh on Lorraine this morning to talk about #TheUnthinkable. Hearing from early readers who’ve been deeply moved by the book means everything. It makes my journey to write it worth it. 📺 Catch-up here ➡️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-Ni...
- ‘David wrote the book [The Unthinkable] to “give voice to what it’s like to grow up in a home where domestic abuse wasn’t the word – it was coercive control and it didn’t appear on my TV screens”.’ But, a decade on, "we're not tackling it enough", he added.
- I sat down with The Sunday Times to talk about The Unthinkable, my memoir of surviving coercive control, fighting to free my mother, and giving voice to the children who grow up unseen inside abusive homes.
- Ahead of my interview with Laura Kuenssberg this morning, we spoke about my memoir The Unthinkable - about coercive control and why we still aren’t doing enough to confront this violence. It airs this morning 9am, on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, BBC One. 📚 #TheUnthinkable is out THURSDAY.
- Catch me on Laura Kuenssberg tomorrow where I’ll be talking about my book The Unthinkable, out Thursday. ➡️ www.hachette.co.uk/titles/david...
- “There’s mental scars which are so difficult to heal.” A decade since coercive control became a crime, survivors are still left with scars no one sees. 🔺 Sussex: 7,000+ reports, just 3% charged 🔺 Surrey: 3,000+ reports, just 7% charged This is why I continue to speak out. Unacceptable failure ⬇️
- Honoured to have my first quote from Mel B, whose support has meant so much since we met during my campaign to free my mother. Her courage and solidarity as a fellow survivor continues to inspire me. THE UNTHINKABKE - Out 5th June 🧍🏼👩🏼🤝👨🏻🧍🏼♂️🏠 Pre-Order Now ➡️ www.hachette.co.uk/titles/david...
- Prosecutors have authorised 21 charges against Andrew and Tristan Tate, including rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking.” Thinking of the brave women who bravely came forward to help hold these violent men accountable.
- Great day at @hayfestival.bsky.social w/Harriet Wistrich + Samira Ahmed talking about my new book The Unthinkable! Hard to believe how far I’ve come, from the lost man who freed his mum from prison after she killed my dad. We gave voice to the abuse she endured, and countless many still suffer 💜
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- What a moment. I never imagined holding my own book. For years I gave voice to others, but this is the first time I’ve told my own. This is the story of what it took to name abuse and what led to… The Unthinkable Out 5 June 2025 🧍🏼👩🏼🤝👨🏻🧍🏼♂️🏠 Pre-order ➡️ www.hachette.co.uk/titles/david...
- Lucy was 13. Groomed, isolated, coercively controlled. But the law says it’s not domestic abuse, because she was under 16. While boys are radicalised by violent misogyny online, girls are left unprotected. This is state failure. ➡️ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
- My mother killed my father. The justice system saw a murder. I saw years of abuse and stood by her to lead a campaign that freed her from prison. Now I’ve written the book about what that took. And what it cost. 🧍🏼👩🏼🤝👨🏻🧍🏼♂️🏠 Out 5 June Pre-order here ➡️ www.hachette.co.uk/titles/david...
- Gisèle Pelicot to sue Paris Match magazine for publishing covert photos. Her lawyers called it “shocking” given her trial laid bare 3,000 images of abuse. Hasn't Gisèle had enough secret non-consensual images taken of her?! Now tone-deaf tabloids are hiding in bushes taking pap shots of her???
- The Menendez brothers were abused by the man they killed. Like my own family’s case, where our father’s abuse tore through our lives, this is not about denying harm, it’s about understanding it. Justice must evolve with what we now know about trauma.
- A Met officer called a rape victim a “c***” who “probably got raw dogged in a park… and regrets it.” He was sacked. But 3 junior officers who stayed silent kept their jobs. One said he didn’t report it, because he saw the man as a ‘role model’?!
- Is this what female empowerment looks like? An 11-min jolly to wash the image of a male billionaire wrecking the planet, while women, who suffer most in poverty, war, and environmental disaster, are left behind.
- Glad to read that more than 3,300 pupils in Northumberland were taught how to recognise coercive control last year. NDAS, which helped 550 victims, says Holly Newton’s murder shows why this education is vital. “Even the strongest can become victims.”
- A woman skips a few events her husband attends and suddenly the world decides they must be divorcing. Michelle Obama has to publicly justify having her own calendar, because apparently a “grown woman” making choices for herself is still unthinkable.
- Bluesky post (300 characters, verified): Female MoD workers say sexual harassment remains unaddressed despite 2023 whistleblower warnings. Prospect union calls for an independent inquiry as confidence in action and reporting falls sharply.
- I grew up in a picture-perfect home, but something was unspoken, unseen, and quietly shaping everything. This is the story of what it took to name it, and what led to… THE UNTHINKABLE Out 5 June 2025 🧍🏼👩🏼🤝👨🏻🧍🏼♂️🏠 Pre-order here ➡️ www.hachette.co.uk/titles/david...
- A serving Met police officer has been charged with four counts of rape, two counts of assault by penetration and one of sexual assault. PC Dion Arnold, now suspended, was remanded in custody and will appear at Guildford crown court on 1 May.
- 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰. 🧍🏼👫🏼🧍🏻♂️🏠
- Russell Brand charged with rape, indecent assault and sexual assault against four women between 1999 and 2005. Charges follow 2023 media investigation. He denies the allegations. Thoughts with the brave victims who reported.
- 23 more women have come forward with allegations against serial rapist Zhenhao Zou. One said he raped her in China. Another woke up in London to find him filming her. Police say his “offending group is far greater” than feared.
- As this govt nears its first year in power—still without a substantial real terms funding increase to honour its pledge to halve violence against women and girls—the speed of approval to show Adolescence in schools feels like PR. Where is the national strategy, the support, the training?
- Joey Barton found GUILTY of assault after pushing his wife to the floor and kicking her in the head. The sentence? Just 12 weeks suspended. Twelve weeks, suspended, for kicking a woman in the head. Absolutely shameful. This is his THIRD violent offence he has been convicted of.
