Elizabeth Chambers says she was learning about ex-husband Armie Hammer’s sexual abuse allegations and fetishes “as the public was,” and it left her speechless.

In a profile for Elle published Wednesday, the former Current TV anchor and Bird bakery owner opened up about how she and Hammer fell in love, how their relationship was reshaped by his increasing fame and how towards the end — around the same time as the allegations emerged — he had become “the worst.”

Discussing how their relationship fell apart while in the Cayman Islands during the COVID-19 lockdown, Chambers offered a different take than the one Hammer gave in a British GQ profile published in September 2020, where he described feeling like a wolf “caught in a snare” and called the tension the byproduct of a “very complicated, intense situation, with big personalities all locked in a little tiny place.”

For Chambers, “his behavior was less caged animal and more irritating,” according to Elle. Their marriage had already been deteriorating, with her recalling that they were spending less time together and at one dinner party “they didn’t even talk [to each other].”

The breaking point in their union, which had been previously tested, was Hammer’s decision to leave her and his kids in the Caymans to help restore a motel outside Joshua Tree National Park with a friend. “He was the worst,” she recalled. “My heart was broken in nine million pieces, and I still drove him to the airport.”

“Marriage is always going to be difficult, and, as with any relationship, you go through a process,” Chambers added, noting that it wasn’t entirely a clear, consistent line to their divorce. “Especially if you throw success and fame into the mix; it just becomes more magnified.” 

Chambers, who filed for divorce in L.A. Superior Court in July 2020, added that “the dissolution of my family” was her biggest fear. “You can give, you can love, you can be there for someone, but you also need to hold people accountable for their actions.”

After their separation, allegations around Hammer’s sexual fetishes and behavior, which included unverified social media messages allegedly from the actor that expressed interest in cannibalism, began to surface. (Hammer has denied them.) The bakery owner and mother said she was stunned. “I was learning things as the public was,” Chambers explained. “I was like, ‘There are no words. What the fuck?’” 

She expressed that regardless of her ex-husband’s interest, in their own marriage “boundaries” were a key partner of their relationship. “[Over time] your partner is learning things about themselves,” she noted. “They’re growing, you’re growing; you hope that you’re growing together.”

Instead, she experienced a complete 180-degree turn from the earlier years of their marriage, which she says felt “completely magical” as she traveled with him to movie shoots and on press tours.

Chambers declined to respond to Hammer’s recent Air Mail interview — his first major sit-down since the allegations — but in a piece published on Feb. 4, the actor continued to deny criminal wrongdoing in relation to the 2021 allegations of sexual misconduct that were highlighted in the House of Hammer docuseries.

At least one of those claims — which included screenshots of alleged communications between women and Hammer — involved a high-profile social media personality, who, according to the Air Mail article, allegedly referred to herself as “chasing him” in a message to Hammer’s ex-wife. (The accuser declined to answer questions for the Air Mail story.) Hammer described their interaction as a consensual non-consent scene.

He confirmed he had checked into a treatment facility for substance abuse in May 2021 after he was dropped by his talent agency and publicist and exited several projects, including Shotgun Wedding, Gaslit and The Offer. He also pointed to sexual abuse as a teen as the impetus for his interest in BDSM, and said that following those allegations, he experienced suicidal ideation and survived a suicide attempt.

In the aftermath of the allegations and the divorce, Chambers told Elle she was mostly thinking about her children, with the feeling now gone of wanting their children to be a mix of herself and Hammer. “Do I want my son to become this? Would I want my daughter to stay in a relationship like this?” she questions. “One day, I want them to be able to say, ‘I am independent of whatever has happened in generations before. I’m aware of it, but I am the person I am not because of where I came from.’”

She’s also very clear about Hammer’s actions not having anything to do with her. “The last thing I ever want to do is let someone else’s actions, which have nothing to do with me, make me angry,” she said. “It’s not going to help me, and it’s not going to help anyone around me.”