Natalie Cole’s Hellish Ordeals: Surviving Prostitution And Beaten With A Bible!

Natalie Cole hid a tragic secret behind her 1995 divorce — she had been a battered woman for more than three years! The ENQUIRER revealed in 1995 how the songbird — who passed away on December 31, 2015, at the age of 65 — finally decided to end her hellish marriage to fulfill a vow she had made to her AIDS-stricken brother Kelly just two days before he died on October 24, 1995. "You're too good to suffer abuse," Kelly told his grieving sister. "Promise me you won't put yourself through this torture!"

Natalie, then 45, filed for divorce from her record producer husband Andre Fischer a few weeks later. When they wed in 1989 Andre and Natalie "appeared to be the picture of a loving married couple," an insider disclosed. "But Andre had a horrible temper, and he unleashed it on Natalie!" The couple had once separated in June 1992 - but several months later, a forgiving Natalie let Andre back into her life. "Once they were reunited it wasn't long before the whole vicious cycle resumed," said a family friend. "Poor Natalie fit the profile of a battered woman to a T. She suffered from poor self-esteem, and constantly felt she was living in the shadow of her late father Nat King Cole, even when her 'Unforgettable' album won seven Grammys."

The ENQUIRER also revealed how Andre later claimed in Los Angeles Superior Court that the abusive incidents were nothing but accidents. In her divorce suit, the songbird alleges Fischer hit her in the chin with a Bible, slammed her against a wall and tore her clothes. Fischer said in court papers: "I pushed the Bible out of her hand so that we would be able to look at each other. "As this was done, the tip of the Bible contacted her upper cheek. "At no time did I ever intend for the Bible to come into contact with her or to harm her in any way." But pals never bought Fischer's sob story. "Andre was a complete bully who abused Natalie emotionally and physically on a regular basis," said a source close to the singing star. "She gave Andre his career — and he answered with violence!"

The ENQUIRER also had the first look when Natalie published her autobiography, "Angel on My Shoulder," in 2000 — where Natalie revealed how drug use had turned her from a Grammy-winning artist to working for a pimp! Hooked on heroin and in dire need of cash, a drug-ravaged Natalie agreed to lure in customers looking for prostitutes in Harlem. A publishing insider had dished about the upcoming manuscript to The ENQUIRER: "She writes that during 1973, she was shooting up so much heroin that she couldn't work and was losing jobs. Desperate for money — and with her career down the toilet after being fired from the prestigious Drake Hotel on her fourth night into a two-week engagement — she hooked up with a pimp named Ronnie who suggested he could help." Natalie would insist that she only worked to bring in customers, and never actually sold her body for sex. She also survived that low point to make her smash comeback by duetting with her dead dad on "Unforgettable" in 1991.