Meredith Baxter claims domestic abuse: How common is it?

(CBS) Fame offers no protection against domestic violence. Just ask Meredith Baxter, star of "Bridget Loves Birney." In a new memoir, she says David Birney - her co-star in the 1970s sitcom and her real-life husband - struck her more than once.

"It was so sudden and unexpected, I couldn't tell which hand hit me, or even how hard," she says in "Untied," People magazine reported. "I do recall thinking, 'I'd better not get up because he's going to hit me again.'"

Birney reportedly denied the allegation, according to the magazine.

Baxter, 63, who came out as a lesbian in 2009, had three children with Birney. She says she drank heavily to cope with the abuse, but has been sober since 1990, the magazine reported.

If Baxter - who also starred in the 1980s sitcom "Family Ties" - was a victim of domestic violence, she has lots of company.

One in every four women will experience domestic violence at some point, according to the National Coalition against Domestic Violence. That adds up to 1.3 million women each year. Most cases go unreported.

Baxter and Birney were married for 15 years. Why didn't she get out of a marriage she calls abusive?

"I didn't know I had a choice," she said in a recent appearance on the Today Show. "I didn't know I could go."