The marital dispute involving Zahnita, a former Malaysian model, has recently come to light. After 20 years of marriage, she filed a police report for domestic violence, leading to her husband being detained by the authorities. What saddens me is how popular news portals and social media platforms have chosen to frame the narrative. While it’s understandable that sensational stories drive engagement and shares online, I believe more could be done to educate the public about the broader issues surrounding this case. Better still, they should leave out the children from this. We’ve all been teenagers. We’ve been in that stage of life where we think we know everything. Yet, we should be able to realize that whatever we knew as teenagers was far from the reality of things once we reach adulthood.

For example;

• A focus on what entails domestic violence (DV). DV is not just physical assaults. Sexual, psychological and financial are also part of DV. However, the public needs to know the criteria of circumstances that qualify for their situations to be perceived as DV. Then, show them the way to how they could get help.
• Explain what Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is from a medical professional point of view. It’s better than having netizens sharing their opinions on what NPD is based on ChatGPT and then passing it off as their own thoughts. I used to have an opinion of what Personality Disorder is. However, once I learned properly about it, I noted that it was not necessarily Kevin Wendell (from SPLIT). You would need a medical professional trained in Psychiatry to assess and confirm the diagnosis.
• Single parents and survival strategies.
• Family counselling therapies. It’s benefits and information about facilities that provide them. People tend to think that counselling is just ‘talking about your problems’. Counselling is a transformative journey of self-discovery and healing, where compassion meets guidance to empower individuals to navigate life’s challenges and embrace their fullest potential.

Instead, we find ourselves reading a teenager’s claim that “nothing happened,” with some people readily accepting her words. In reality, abuse often occurs behind closed doors but can also manifest publicly, including through the psychological torment inflicted via social media. Disagreements in a marriage happen, but to abuse is to betray the very foundation of love and trust that a partnership is built upon.

And now we are talking about pie recipes? Seriously?