Silenced: Inside the three-year battle to tell Liv Nervo’s story

Liv Nervo and her twin sister, Mim Nervo reached out to me on Instagram more than three years ago. Liv was a victim of domestic abuse by her ex-partner, Matthew Pringle – who tricked her into having a child based on his alter-ego as a monogamous family man – and she refused to be silenced. Not for herself – anyone who has spoken about their abuse at the hands of a powerful man knows there is no upside for us personally – but for all the other women out there who were the victims of reproductive coercion inside abusive relationships. 

Liv – who, along with Mim, is also known as the enormously successful DJ duo Nervo – couldn’t tell her story because her abuser had convinced the family courts to block journalists from reporting on the case. 

I contacted Good Law Project and, between us, we decided we simply weren’t allowing that to happen.

I printed off all the evidence I had about Liv’s story and hand-delivered it to Good Law Project’s offices. Jo Maugham, founder and director, was immediately on board. 

As journalists trying to expose the extent of the abuse of power that goes unchecked, the phrase “stranger than fiction” is common fodder. But Liv’s story truly was. 

For over two years, Liv thought she was in a committed, monogamous relationship with Pringle, a New Zealand businessman whose family runs the Manuka Doctor honey empire. Liv and Pringle spoke frequently about marriage and starting a family. He travelled across the world to see her on her ‘fertile’ days so they could conceive. But while she was pregnant with his child, Liv discovered the devastating truth: Pringle had been in a long-term relationship with another woman for all the time they were together. He had hidden the fact that he already had a child, and that she was also pregnant with a second child at the same time as Liv.

And it didn’t end there. Liv found out that Pringle had also been leading a secret third life with a third woman.

Liv felt her reproductive autonomy had been completely violated – she had been tricked into believing she was building a future and a family with someone who was available to be a father to their child, and whom she trusted. But he had deceived her on every level. 

As soon as I heard Liv’s story, I knew I wanted to help her speak out. And it wasn’t just her story that Liv gave me – she kept receipts. All of them. Every single element of her story was backed up by texts, emails, litigation documents and legal letters that she had kept. After doing my due diligence and verifying all of this evidence, I was convinced: something had to be done. 

I had no funding or legal backing to take on a multimillionaire – but I knew just the people for the job. 

Jo Maugham immediately agreed that Good Law Project would fund all-star barrister, Jude Bunting KC, to represent me as I argued before the family court that it was a matter of obvious public interest for Liv’s story to be told. The BBC, who also backed Liv from very early on, also brought their legal A team on board. We were a force to be reckoned with. 

It was a years-long journey and it often felt hopeless – like the day when a family court judge ruled that I could not report Liv’s story because he agreed with the father and against Liv that keeping the truth a secret was in the best interest of the child — a child the father barely knows but who Liv is bringing up. 

Liv and Good Law Project were constantly being threatened by Pringle’s lawyers, and so was I. But they didn’t frighten us, because we knew – by knowing Liv and also by independently verifying all the facts in this twisted tale – that her story was true. 

The thing about the long game is that you do actually have to lose some battles to win the war. And Liv did win the war. 

Because thanks to a bizarre decision by the father to appeal a decision made by the High Court in London to award her costs, Liv can speak openly about what she has lived through.

You’ll see Liv’s story on the Good Law Project site, on the BBC, on the ABC in Australia (where Liv, Mim and I all come from) in the next few days. 

You’ll also see Liv tirelessly campaigning to raise awareness about informed consent, when deceit is rape and reproductive coercion. 

But what you won’t see, is all the years and years that she and Mim put into this fight – years of fighting against not only Liv’s abuser, but the courts and judges who protected him. Years and years of recovering from not only the initial traumas, but the retransmission inflicted upon Liv and her family by the “justice” system in general, and the family courts in particular. 

What you also won’t see is the hundreds of thousands of pounds of her own money she had to pour into a legal fight that she will never get back. Not to mention the time and the hours she and Mim spent with me on this. All to deliver this moment – the moment she, and all other victims of reproductive coercion, get to be heard. 

You won’t see the sheer resilience it takes for women like Liv and Mim to keep fighting against a system that continues to prove it is stacked against them. 

Because of their sheer grit, and because of the fearlessness and generosity and commitment of Jo and Good Law Project, we now have not only Liv’s story in the public domain, but also multiple MPs willing to advocate for law reform in our nation’s parliament. 

I often hate being saccharine, but the world feels darker than ever and it’s important to celebrate the wins. Goliath can buy time, can buy threatening legal letters, can buy intimidation tactics, but he can’t buy truth. 

Liv, as so many proverbial Davids, has finally had her truth vindicated. Let it be a lesson to all of us: journalists, organisations, editors and also – especially – those who wish to use their money and power to intimidate victims into silence. The lesson is this: there is fight in us yet. The truth matters and it’s worth fighting for.