Don McLean's Wife Is Granted a Temporary Protection Order Against Him
The "American Pie" singer, however, tweeted, "I am not a villain."
— -- Don McLean's wife has been granted a temporary order of protection against him.
Patricia McLean of Camden, Maine, alleged that her husband, the singer-songwriter of "American Pie" fame, has physically and verbally abused her for three decades and has "a violent temper,” according to the Rockland District Court order obtained by ABC News.
"For the first 10 years or so his rage was unfathomably deep and very scary," she wrote in a statement attached to the protection order. "On Jan. 17, Don terrorized me for 4 hours until the 911 call that I think might have saved my life."
A hearing on the temporary order of protection has been scheduled for next Thursday.
A representative for the Knox County Unified Court in Maine confirmed he was arrested Monday on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge. He is out on bail and is due back in court Feb. 22 on that charge. He did not enter a plea.
But the "American Pie" singer says he’s being misrepresented. He took to Twitter today to tell his side of the story to his followers.
"This last year and especially now have been hard emotional times for my wife my children and me. What is occurring is the very painful breakdown of an almost 30 year relationship," he wrote. "Our hearts are broken and we must carry on. There are no winners or losers but I am not a villain."
McLean, 70, and his wife, 56, have two children, and they were the subject of a 2009 profile in Maine Home and Design."
The singer tweeted that he's praying for "the strength to find new happiness" and knows that he "may never recover from this."
Still, "I will try and hope to continue to entertain you all as I always have," he wrote. "And I hope people will realize that this will all be resolved but I hope I will not be judged in this frantic media environment."
