Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence (IPV), is defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one partner against another in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation. Domestic violence, so defined, has many forms, including physical aggression or assault (hitting, kicking, biting, shoving, restraining, slapping, throwing objects), or threats thereof; sexual abuse; emotional abuse; controlling or domineering; intimidation; stalking; passive/covert abuse (e.g., neglect); and economic deprivation. Alcohol consumption and mental illness can be co-morbid with abuse, and present additional challenges in eliminating domestic violence. Awareness, perception, definition and documentation of domestic violence differs widely from country to country, and from era to era.

Domestic violence and abuse is not limited to obvious physical violence. Domestic violence can also mean endangerment, criminal coercion, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, trespassing, harassment, and stalking.

Leslie Morgan Steiner (born July 20, 1965) is an American author, blogger and businesswoman.

Leslie Anne Morgan was born in Washington, D.C. on July 20, 1965. A 1987 graduate of Harvard College with a B.A. in English, Steiner's first published work was an autobiographical account of her teenage struggle with anorexia nervosa, published in Seventeen in September 1986. The article, "Starving for Perfection", was written under the pseudonym Isabel Johnson and received over 4000 reader letters, at the time a record for Seventeen, and appeared in the 1993 anthology The College Reader.

Steiner went on to work in the Articles Department for Seventeen from 1987-1988. She was a freelance magazine writer and consultant from 1988-1990. She earned an MBA degree in Marketing from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1992.

Her corporate marketing career included stints at the Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago and Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick, New Jersey. At Johnson & Johnson she launched the low-calorie sweetener ingredient sucralose, also known as Splenda Brand Sweetener, internationally from 1994-2000. She oversaw the public relations program for the sweetener's United States Food and Drug Administration approval on April 1, 1999.^{[citation needed]}

Keira Christina Knightley ( /ˌkɪərə ˈnaɪtli/; born 26 March 1985) is an English actress and model. She began acting as a child and came to international notice in 2002 after co-starring in the film Bend It Like Beckham. From 2003, her appearances in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series took her to much greater prominence. In 2008, Forbes claimed Knightley to be the second highest paid actress in Hollywood, having reportedly earned $32 million in 2007, making her the only non-American on the list of highest paid actresses.

Knightley has appeared in several Hollywood films and earned nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in Joe Wright's 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. Two years later she again was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, as well as the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Atonement.

Knightley was born in Teddington, London, England, the daughter of Sharman MacDonald, an award-winning playwright, and Will Knightley, a theatre and television actor. Her father is English and her Scottish mother is of half Welsh ancestry. She has an elder brother, Caleb.^{[citation needed]}