The California school principal who jumped to his death at Disneyland after leaving a chilling suicide note decided to end his life because of a “toxic” relationship with his “abusive” wife, his daughter said in a shocking new interview.
Christopher Christensen, 51, who had been the principal of Huntington Beach, Calif., elementary schools for 22 years, took the fatal leap Saturday — two days before he was due in court on child endangerment and battery charges.
In a new interview with the Daily Mail, 26-year-old Brittany Christensen, one of his three children from a previous marriage, claimed his current wife, Marlena, had been the abusive partner and accused her of tearing up the family.
“[Marlena] has been very difficult in our family for about the last year, and we haven’t had any contact with her,” Brittany told the news outlet.
“I’d just now started regaining contact with [Chris] over the last two weeks, and it’s been really great. He’d been trying to figure out how to leave her,” she said. “In my opinion, it seems like this, in his mind, was his way out of his relationship.”
Christensen had pleaded not guilty to the child endeangerment charges after his Nov. 15 arrest and was released on $10,000 bail.
In a lengthy Facebook note, he blamed the “flawed” legal system for upending his life and sought to play down his marital troubles with wife Marlena, saying the couple “love and adore each other,” adding that their relationship was “amazing … up until recently.”
He explained they recently got into a “heated argument” in front of his stepdaughters, Katelynn and Kara, but insisted that he had not “hit, slap, or hurt” his wife or the young women.
“Unfortunately, Marlena’s anger got the best of her that night and she called the police, which landed me in jail that night. Yes, me! A man who has never hit or harmed ANYONE in his life!” he wrote.
Brittany claimed Marlena — who had been married to Chris for three and a half years — had been “abusive to our entire family for five years,” adding that her account to law enforcement was “riddled with lies.”
The daughter also shared with the Daily Mail a series of text messages Marlena allegedly sent her after an argument in April.
“You’re a horrible disgusting excuse for a daughter and sister. Go find your Dad, play the hero. But it’s me he will be missing [in] the morning,” Marlena reportedly wrote, according to the outlet.
Brittany also alleged Marlena caused $6,000 worth of damage to her car after the argument, during which her dad tried to split from his wife.
The daughter said she filed a police report about the incident at her Costa Mesa home.
“It was unresolved because she didn’t admit to anything, but we had footage from her doorbell camera leaving the house in the middle of the night and then coming to my apartment (where my dad was staying for the night) and taking his car,” Brittany told the Daily Mail.
