BBC Repair Shop leather specialist Suzie Fletcher has bravely opened up over the years about her personal struggles, including an abusive marriage19:01, 15 Jul 2026Updated 19:04, 15 Jul 2026The Repair Shop star Suzie Fletcher has been open over the years about the abuse she suffered in her marriage to her late husband.‌The leather expert first shot to fame in 2018 when she joined the much-loved BBC programme that celebrates skilled artisans who restore treasured but worn family heirlooms back to their former glory. Yet over the years, she has endured considerable heartache, including suffering abuse at the hands of her late husband, which left her fearing for her own safety.‌Suzie's first marriage came in her 20s, before she went on to wed her second husband Rob in her early 30s, having relocated to America for work. Suzie described being "swept off her feet" by Rob, with the pair tying the knot within just three months of her arriving in Denver.‌Over the years, Suzie has courageously spoken out about the abuse she endured at Rob's hands. He even told her a "cruel" lie about her brother and The Repair Shop co-star Steve was dying.Recounting one harrowing incident in which he had lifted her off the ground by her throat, Suzie told MailOnline and made a heartbreaking confessiom: "I honestly thought I was going to die. He was choking me and could easily have killed me. I don't know why but eventually he let go."‌She “went along with it for fear” and instead learned “how to swerve a bullet” until Rob died of cancer in 2012. After his death, she returned to the UK but was: "Physically, mentally and emotionally…exhausted”.Suzie has also previously revealed that Rob once lied to her that her beloved brother Steve was dying, saying: "He tried (to turn me against my family). He did try and that was not going to happen. He also was very cruel. On one visit we came back to the UK and I'm incredibly close to my brother Steve.‌"And he and Steve were spending a lot of time together. We'd got back to the US and he said: 'I'm going to tell you now, your brother is seriously ill, probably terminal. He's told me this in confidence so you can't tell anybody.""So that's my brother, who is terminally ill. It wasn't (true). He was frightening me, he was testing me, so for a long time, every time I talked to Steve I'd say: 'Alright. How's your health?'‌"I do remember saying to him: 'Well Steve's fine.' And he'd say: 'Well that's good. What a relief.' So you begin to lose your remind sadly and it gets reflected back on you."Suzie and Rob were married for 15 years before his passing in 2013 from pancreatic cancer, a devastating blow to the family who had been completely unaware of his condition.‌In her 2013 memoir, The Sun Over The Mountains : A Story of Hope, Healing and Restoration, Suzie shared the heartbreaking account of Rob's final moments. She wrote: "On Monday morning, Rob became quite lucid and started talking. 'Baby blue,' he repeated a few times, 'Brum, brum, brum, drive.'"."The words were clear, but the meaning was not. And while he was speaking, his arms were going up and then down."Suzie went on to describe how Rob's lungs began filling with fluid later that afternoon, leading to an urgent attempt to drain them. She recalled how, as his life ebbed away, Rob locked eyes with her, and in a fleeting instant, he was gone.Article continues belowThe Repair Shop is available to watch on BBC iPlayer