Nicola Adams reveals she slept with a hammer under her pillow as a child to defend herself  

Nicola Adams has revealed that slept with a hammer under her pillow as a child to defend herself from her mother’s abusive partner. 

The boxing champion, 39, grew up on a council estate in Leeds and suffered abuse from her father, Innocent, before her mother, Denver, started dating another abusive man. 

She has now told The Sun: ‘It was horrible. I couldn’t understand why it had happened, and I remember asking my mum: “How have we ended up in this situation again?”  I’d been through a lot already, and this guy was a lot bigger than my dad. I knew there was no way I’d be able to stop him if anything serious happened.’ 

It was then when she decided that she would have to sleep with a hammer under her pillow so she does defend herself and her mother. 

Although he wasn’t abusive towards her, Nicola still felt scared. She went on to say: ‘One night I’d just had enough. I went downstairs and took the hammer and said: “You need to leave the house now or I’m going to use it.” 

‘I remember I was scared. I didn’t know what was going to happen, I just knew I had to do something. As soon as I had, I was thinking: “Oh c**p, I’m here now, and I don’t know what’s going to happen.”‘ 

After this, she followed him to the car with the weapon and made sure he wouldn’t come back to their home before throwing a brick through his car window as he drove away.  

Turbulent: The boxing champion grew up on a council estate in Leeds and suffered abuse from her father, Innocent, before her mother, Denver, started dating another abusive man; pictured 2018

Nicola spent most her childhood scared of her father because he would lash out at her with a fist or belt for just being late home. 

It was because of this that she got used to feeling scared and sad most of the time, and has since had to have trauma therapy. 

Speaking ahead of a Netflix documentary with the publication, she also revealed that her journey through boxing began when her mother could not find a babysitter and dropped her off with her brother, Kurtis, when he went to practice. 

It was here that she found another kind of family, and where her coach, Steve Franks, told her she would be world champion one day. 

The journey to success was a rocky one for Nicola because women’s boxing has been underfunded, and she sought motivation from others when she thought she wanted to quit.

She went on to share that she had to take part time jobs so she could earn money to live because the industry had such little money. 

Women’s boxing was eventually added as an Olympic sport in 2012, where she won the first gold medal. 

Nicola went on to fight as a professional boxer in 2017 but retired in 2019 after tearing a pupil in her eye during her a fight against Maria Salinas. 

She made history once again after taking part in Strictly Come Dancing last year in being in the first same-sex couple on the show with Katya Jones. 

Nicola is hoping to now launch her acting career after the launch of her documentary Lioness.  

Historic: After her momentous career success, Nicola made history once again after taking part in Strictly Come Dancing last year in being in the first same-sex couple on the show with Katya Jones; pictured in 2020