WATCH: New Jersey Ex-Wife of Orlando Shooter Talks to Media

The former New Jersey woman who was once married to the Orlando terrorist shooter Omar Mateen spoke to the media Sunday afternoon from where she now lives in Colorado. Sitora Yusufiy, who was raised in northern New Jersey and lived in Edison and Lawrenceville, speaks below:

Yusufiy said her parents called her early Sunday morning and woke her up: "The first thing they told me was your ex-husband was involved in a mass shooting. I was devastated, shocked, started shaking and crying because more than anything, I was so, so deeply hurt and heartbroken for the people who lost their loved ones."

"To be affiliated at one point in my life to someone who caused such a tragedy shook me," she added.

Yusufiy spent part of Sunday afternoon being interrogated by the FBI. Her parents, Muslim immigrants from Uzbekistan, still live in Edison.

"A few months after we were married, I saw his instability. He would get mad out of nowhere, and that's when I started worrying about my safety," she said. "He would not allow me to speak to my family ... I tried to see the good in him, even then, but my family was very tuned in to what I was going through and they decided to visit me, and rescue me from that situation."

She was married to Mateen for two years, from 2009 to 2011, after they met online while she was living in New Jersey. She said he beat her during their marriage, took her paychecks and tried to keep her isolated in their Port St. Lucie condo. She told the New York Times her mother was scared he was going to take out a gun and shoot them all when her parents helped her leave him in 2011.

She also said she suspected he was bipolar, but it was never formally diagnosed. She has made comments in the media that she thinks the shooting is not so much about Mateen's Islamic faith, but more to do with his undiagnosed mental illness. That's her current fiance, Marcio Dias, by her side. Yusufiy said she herself does not follow any particular religion.

Yusufiy emigrated to the U.S. from Uzbekistan when she was 11. The family first settled in northern New Jersey, and later moved to Edison. She studied at Montclair State University and also lived in Lawrenceville before moving to Florida to be with Mateen.

She told the New York Times Mateen would hit her out of nowhere when they were married, sometimes even while she was sleeping. She said he often went target practice shooting with his friends, some of whom were in law enforcement. She said after they divorced, he tried to contact her casually on Facebook, but she blocked him and told him to never contact him again. Her family told him they would call the police if he ever tried to contact her again.

"He was mentally unstable and mentally ill. That's the only explanation I can give," she said, when asked why Mateen would do this. "He would get in his tempers; he would express hate."