40°
Mary Margaret Farren, 49, told ABC's Amy Roback that she had heard her husband had a reputation for being "tough" at work and admitted that she believed "he loved it."
When she served her husband with divorce papers on Jan. 6 2010, he attacked her, brutally beating his then-wife with a metal flashlight.
"He put his hands around my neck and tackled me to the floor and started slamming my head into the floor," Mary Margaret Farren told Roback.
"I thought: 'I'm dying'," Farren said in the interview. "And then I thought: 'I've got to hold it together; I've got to stay conscious so I can save the girls.'"
She suffered a broken jaw, cheek and skull fractures along with brain damage as a result of the attack, yet she still escapee, secured her two daughters and drove to a neighbor's house to call police.
J. Michael Farren was charged with attempted murder, and though the case was delayed for years, he was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison last year.
Mary Margret Farren told Roback that she decided to tell her story in the hopes that other battered women will find safety and that they "do not need to do this alone."
Click on the video above to watch the full "20/20" interview.
Click here to follow Daily Voice New Canaan and receive free news updates.
