Hi everyone, we have some exciting news to share. ABC News Studios has turned Caroline Berega's story from betrayal season four into a docu-series. You'll get to meet the people involved. You'll hear from people who have never spoken before and you get to see where the story took place. We are so proud and excited to share it with you all. Stream betrayal dirty secrets now, on Hulu or Hulu for Disney Plus. This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human. If you're bookshelf and you're for you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse. Each week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture. With your favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions. Yeah, I'm obsessed, I'm obsessed. Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering the ride on his motorcycle. I choose option B. I'm Julie Pinero and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Our hometown is not a test tube. 90 miles northeast of Nashville, a battle for the future of America plays out in one small town. Developers with right wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land. We need cities on a shining hill. This is our town. A podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment and fights back. I guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies and I'll dig it. Listen to our town on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're seeking to try to understand the forensic science behind these cases that we hear about in the news, body bags is where you need to turn. There's no fluff. We do a deep dive into the forensics. Listen to body bags with Joseph Scott Morian on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search body bags with Joseph Scott Morian and start listening. I don't know this person. When I had in my mind, it's not true. He's not the person I thought he was. I have no idea what he was capable of doing. I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything. Really quick before we get into the episode, I have a small favor to ask you. If you're enjoying listening to Betrayal, please take a second to hit the follow button on your podcast app and please rate and review. We read all the comments and your voices help our show improve and evolve. I really mean it when I say thank you for listening and helping us grow. Also, if you want behind the scenes content or resources, follow @betrayalpod on Instagram or follow me at it's Andre Gunning. All right, onto the show. Today we're sharing the story of a woman we're going to call Lucy. She grew up in Puerto Rico with her parents and siblings. Puerto Rico is an amazing place. People are super friendly. It's like everybody's family and you feel absolutely welcomed. Lucy grew up with three brothers and they were really close. I really tried to be up to their standards in terms of sports. So I had to run and play basketball and play baseball and things like that. Lucy is tall and strikingly beautiful. When she was 15 years old, she started modeling. Runways, commercials, TV, but you know, I always kept this part of my life a secondary thing. School was her top priority. I always had very high standards and I accomplished them. I graduated almost four-point average in high school. She excelled in college as well. After graduating, she built a successful career in the media industry. Her 20s and 30s were full of adventure. I met a lot of very interesting people. I used to travel a lot. I've been lucky, one of the lucky ones. In her mid-30s, Lucy was in a long-term relationship. She and her boyfriend had been dating for eight years. One night, Lucy was out at a party. When a friend of hers came over and told her that guy at the party kept asking about her. His name was Ellie. I was going out with somebody else. So it was not in my radar to look at other people. But eventually, he asked about me and he told my friend I'm going to end up with this girl. Ellie was bold to be announcing his crush on her. After all, Lucy was dating someone and Ellie was too. She was the boyfriend of my girlfriend and I always thought that we're going to get married. But she kept seeing Ellie around. And over time, he became a friendly face in the crowd. She always had fun talking to him. She learned that he had moved to Puerto Rico for work. Puerto Rico is small. So we would see each other in a restaurant or in a party. But nothing so intimate. Eventually, Lucy and her long-term boyfriend broke up. And at the age of 35, she was single again for the first time in nearly a decade. One night, she went out to dinner with some friends at a Mediterranean restaurant. And when I got in, the first person I see is Ellie. And he stopped me and he said, oh, hi. He asked about her boyfriend. And she told him that they had just broken up. And I asked him, and how's your girlfriend? And he told me that they broke up. And I said, oh, my God, I can't believe this. We have to cry in each other's shoulder. And he said, yes. And he asked me for my phone number. After that night, Ellie called Lucy. Talking to him was fun and refreshing. He started calling her more often. And soon, he couldn't hide his feelings for her anymore. And he asked her on a date. And since he was recent that I have split with my boyfriend of eight years, I told him, listen, I'm not ready now. It's too soon. After her breakup, she was focused on herself. So they stayed friends. But over time, Lucy's feelings for Ellie grew. He was so smart and they really attracted me to him a lot. I could listen to him talk for hours. And I was fascinated. And Ellie kept pursuing her, asking her out to dinner. He would call me and call me and call me. Eventually, she agreed. And they went out on their first date. I couldn't believe how amazing this guy was. I really liked him. And I was like, I started looking at him in another way. Ellie was a romantic. He pulled out all the stops to show Lucy how much he liked her. And it didn't hurt that he made a lot of money. He had a lucrative job in the oil and gas industry. And could afford to spoil Lucy. He would send me flowers constantly. He would call me all the time. He would pick me up and he would be dressed super nice and smells super good. She was having so much fun. He would take me to this wonderful restaurant. And I would go to the hotel. I would have flowers waiting for me on a bottle of champagne. They made their relationship official. At the beginning, I just let everything flow and enjoy myself. But then I realized I admire him so much. This man is so smart, so well versed. He was fascinating. He spoke four languages. He was well read. He was really a very special guy for me. The feeling was mutual. Ellie admired Lucy's intelligence, ambition, and told her all the time how beautiful she was. He would call all his friends to tell him, "No, I'm with this girl and I love her." He was really, really in love. They made a great pair. Over time, their relationship became more serious. They were both hoping to start a family soon. And they talked about their future together often. Then when Winter came around, and they'd been dating for a year, Ellie took a trip to New York for work and invited Lucy to come. went out to dinner, did this beautiful.
restaurant and then he said, "Okay, let's just go around the carriage in Central Park." So they booked a carriage tour and rode through Central Park together. "It was beautiful. It was a beautiful night." Lucy looked out at the city lights, taking it all in. When she turned back to Ellie, he was down on one knee, asking me to marry him. "Oh my god, it was so perfect. It was really charming and so unexpected and really magical." Back in Puerto Rico, Lucy and Ellie moved in together and seven months later, they got married. "In this beautiful hotel in Puerto Rico, we really had a good time." After two years of marriage, they were ready to have kids. "I got pregnant when I was 39. We was so wanted and it turned out a beautiful experience." Lucy decided to put her career on hold and spend as much time as possible with her son. "I never imagined I was going to be a housewife and I loved it. At that stage in my life, I had already traveled, I had parties, I had fun. You know, I was ready." Ellie worked hard to provide for their family. He worked for an oil company and the company was in Puerto Rico. He didn't like to live in Puerto Rico. He never got too used to our culture. We were a little relaxed. He's a little more A-type. He really wanted to move to the state, that's where he felt comfortable. As time went on, Ellie started having more and more success at work. He started buying properties with business partners and he also had a gas company. So he started being very successful. They were happy, but Ellie dreamed of moving somewhere new. When their first child was a year old, the timing was finally right. Ellie could work remotely and Lucy was up for the adventure. So they moved their life from Puerto Rico to the continental United States. Lucy didn't know what to expect. When they got there, she found herself immersed in a whole new world. "It was kind of a high-class community, which I didn't know when I bought the house, how prestigious was the place I was living." They moved to a gated waterfront community. We're not naming this community for Lucy's privacy, but it was an exclusive island where every street was lined with beautiful mansions. Many of the estates had their own cool or yacht. Suddenly, they had attained another level of wealth and luxury, and Lucy wouldn't have to work again. "We had a huge house, beautiful house." After a few years in the states, they welcomed their second child, a daughter. And it was a wonderful pregnancy at 43 years old. Remember, I grew up with boys only. So having a girl was fantastic. Ellie was still administrating the old company in Puerto Rico, but he was investing in real estate, and he kept on doing very well. With time, he did better and better and better. Within their marriage, Lucy and Ellie each had their own domain. Ellie handled work and money, and Lucy handled their kids, the house, and their family's needs. They gave each other full reign to handle their side of things, and their system was a well-oiled machine. "He would work, I would do rest. Everything else regarding my children, regarding the house, he just said how much, and he would pay for it." They gave each other a lot of space and trusted each other deeply. "I was so respectful of his space and his things. I really never knew how much money he had. I never knew all his businesses just in general, but no details." Lucy didn't need to know the details to see the big picture. They were very lucky. They'd been happily married for 20 years, and their kids were teenagers now. They traveled together often and gave their kids everything they could dream of. "Our lifestyle was so wonderful, and I was thinking I have so much more than what I need. We traveled a lot, we ended up buying a beach house. We decided for many years to spend Christmas in Paris with the kids. We were happy, we were happy. There was no reason for me to think that things were gonna end up the way they did." If your bookshelf and your for-you-page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is Pro's Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse. "I'm Eli Rallo, and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having." "I'm gonna have to look up this story. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed." From best-selling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. "It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, and that is the Trojan horse." Whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to Pro's Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages. "Our town is small taters by most standards, right? But to the people who grew up here, it's everything." What happens when a quiet Tennessee town becomes the front line in a battle over the future of America? "Developers with right wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land in the area." The first thing you see when it pops up is high nears and apple etchum, but they weren't just planning houses. "We need cities on a shining hill that exemplify and embody the Christian way of life." Stop right there, is that normal? A podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment. "God need men to rule great," and decides to fight back. "Do not use my hard work to sell your bulls." "They're not just opposing what's being planned for here." "Our hometown is not a test too." "They feel like they're standing in opposition to an entire administration." "Guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you?" Listen to our town on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. "If you're seeking to try to understand the forensic science behind these cases that we hear about in the news, body bags is where you need to turn. There's no fluff. We do a deep dive into the forensics." Listen to Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan and start listening. That call was really pivotal for me. "Hey, it's Emily Tish Sussman and this season on She Pivots, the podcast where women share bold career moves and personal turning points that changed everything. I sit down with culture shifting women who share their pivots, like Para Olympian Alley Truett. I was like, I'm a month out from a shark attack. There's no way in eleven months I'm making the verilandics." Advocate Elizabeth Smart. "I still feel that drive that I can still make a difference, so I'm gonna keep going." Celebrity Chef Carla Hall was that scary to walk away from such a stable career after just two years. "No, I was more afraid of being unhappy than I was broke and in a dead in job that I didn't enjoy." And feminist legend, Gloria Steinem. "All of us were trying to express women's real lives. We need a meeting place of our own and if I can contribute to that, I'd like to maintain that and leave this house for that purpose." Listen to She Pivots on the iHeart Radio App Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Lucian, her husband Alley built an impressive life together. They lived in a beautiful house, had two kids and traveled often. They had everything they needed and more. "Our lifestyle was still wonderful and every time we'd travel, we had fun, we would laugh and it was good. We were happy. You know, we were happy." For 20 years, their marriage was a dream. But when Alley turned 60, Lucy started noticing some changes in him. He grew emotionally distant. "It was more touchy feeling than he was. He started not having any intimacy with me. I was always very much into looking good. I tried to keep being attractive to him, but there was no reaction from him." And on top of that, he started dressing differently.
My husband was a very, very classy man, he would always be very well dressed, but very appropriate for his age. When he turned 60, I started noticing that he started dressing like a young guy. He would wear like skinny jeans, and he started wearing bracelets, and I was like, "What the hell? What's wrong with you?" She looked like an old man in teenagers clothes, and I asked him, "Are you seeing somebody else? Because this is too strange." And he would say, "No, you're crazy." She took his word for it. Their mutual trust was an essential part of their relationship. "I had no resources to doubt." I respected him so much, I never went through his phone, I never went through his wallet. She talked it all up to a midlife crisis, but over time, Ellie went from being distant to being cruel. One day, Lucy and Ellie got into an argument. And he said, "You know something? You are not necessary. You are convenient." I went to the room and I started crying and didn't say anything, and he realized what stupid thing he said. And he started sending me flowers and saying, "How important I am." But Lucy couldn't get his words out of her head. Every year, Lucy and her friends went on a girls trip. We would go to Europe or New York or different places, just for a week or something like that. We went to Spain, and then we ended up in Turkey. While on her girls trip, she called Ellie to check in. But when he picked up the phone, he was crying. And I said, "What happened?" He used to have a Bentley, and he said, "I went to the mall to have a business lunch." And when I came back to pick up my car, he was scratched from head to toe. And I said, "What?" Lucy was confused. Why would that happen? And why was he in tears over this? Especially the mall that he went, it was a very high end mall that had cameras and security all over. He said, "How could this happen?" He said, "No, but don't worry. I'm going to send it to be fixed." Lucy wasn't ready to just accept this and move on. It was too strange. Keying someone's car was personal. "Who did this? Who could have done this?" And he said, "I don't know. This is just vandalism." Even though he'd been so emotional on the phone, Ellie insisted that this wasn't targeted at them specifically. Lucy wasn't convinced, but she tried to enjoy the rest of her trip with her friends. When I came back from my trip, I noticed he was very nervous. And the first night, I received a call at three o'clock in the morning. Lucy woke up in the darkness to her phone ringing. When she picked up, there was silence. And they hung up. Lucy looked at Ellie sitting in bed next to her. And he was very nervous and I was like, "What's going on?" And he said, "No, no. That must be a wrong number." Her normally calm and collected husband of 20 years seemed a little rattled. The following day, one of their close friends came over for dinner. They shared a nice meal, good conversation, and everything felt normal. But then, just when their friend was about to head home, Ellie stopped him. He tells him, "Please don't leave. She's going to need you." And he tells me to sit down. Confused, Lucy sat down and her friends sat next to her. They both looked at Ellie waiting for her next planation. He stood nervously in front of them. And he said, "I have been kidnapped." And he said, "What? By who? What happened?" All of a sudden, their living room became Ellie's confessional. I have been dating women from SugarDaddy.com. I have dated a few women. I would see them at lunchtime, two days a week. But for the last six months, I have been closer to these Russian women, Anna. And she's married. She has a three-year-old baby. Her husband knows that she's an escort. He manages her. Ellie would meet Anna in different places, sometimes in hotel rooms, sometimes at one of his rental properties. But one day, things took a turn. Anna told Ellie to meet her in an apartment that Ellie owned. When Ellie goes to the apartment, he thought he was going to be in the rendezvous with Anna. When he goes there, who's in the apartment, Anna's husband. Ellie told Lucy how shocked he was in that moment. But he said, "There was no time for him to react." Once Ellie was inside, Anna's husband closed the door and took out a steel pipe threatening to hurt Ellie. He wanted Ellie to see that he was serious. He told Ellie, "Take off your clothes." So he got naked. He sat him in a sofa and he started breaking things in the apartment. Anna and her husband had been struggling financially. And they knew how wealthy Ellie was. So they devised a plan to extort him. They planted cameras in the hotel rooms and rental properties for Ellie and Anna met. And they filmed them having sex to use as blackmail. Anna's husband would put the camera in front of the bed and tell her, "This is where the camera is. This is where you have to concentrate." And then he would record everything. Now, Anna and her husband were threatening to release these tapes if Ellie did not comply with their demands. You have to give me $1 million cash and you have to put under my wife's name two apartments in a specific building. And if he didn't. I'm going to tell you, wife. Everybody are going to ruin your reputation. And for Ellie, his reputation was everything. If his reputation wasn't enough, Anna and her husband had more collateral. Anna's husband showed Ellie pictures of my children, pictures of my house, pictures of me, pictures of the cars, pictures of the school my children went. They knew everything. They implied there were going to be consequences. Something's going to happen to your family. Anna's husband held Ellie in the apartment for a few hours to make it clear he was serious. Finally, he left and Ellie was free to go. Ellie explained all of this in one go to Lucy. I didn't know how to react. This was like from a movie, but it was happening that day. My life collapsed. If your bookshelf and your for you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. I'm Eli Rallo and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. From bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters and that is the Trojan horse, whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Our town is small taters by most standards, right? But to the people who grew up here, it's everything. What happens when a quiet Tennessee town becomes the front line in a battle over the future of America? Developers with right wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land in the area. The first thing you see when it pops up is pioneers in Appalachia. But they weren't just planning houses. We need cities on a shining hill that exemplify and embody the Christian way of life. Stop right there, is that normal? God need men to rule! And decides to fight back. back. Do.
Don't not use my hard work to sell your bulls. They're not just opposing what's being planned for here. Our hometown is not a test, too. They feel like they're standing in opposition to an entire administration. I guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you? There's no fluff. Listen to Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Hey, it's Emily Tish Sussman, and this season on She Pivots, the podcast where women share bold career moves and personal turning points that changed everything. I sit down with culture-shifting women who share their pivots, like Para Olympian Alley Truett. I was like, "I'm a month out from a shark attack. There's no way in 11 months I'm making the fairylandics." Advocate Elizabeth Smart. I still feel that drive that I can still make a difference, so I'm going to keep going. Celebrity chef Carla Hall was that scary to walk away from such a stable career after just two years? No. I was more afraid of being unhappy than I was broke and in a dead and job that I didn't enjoy. And feminist legend, Gloria Steinem. All of us were trying to express women's real lives. We need a meeting place of our own, and if I can contribute to that, I'd like to maintain that and leave this house for that purpose. Listen to She Pivots on the iHeartRadioApp Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Lucy's husband, Ellie, sat her down and told her he needed to confess something. She never could have predicted what came out of his mouth next. That day, my life collapsed. She thought her husband of 20 years was an honest and loyal man. She saw no indications otherwise. While Ellie was forced to tell her the truth, for years he'd been meeting women from a sugar daddy website. For the past few months, he'd been seeing one woman regularly. That was until she and her husband devised a plan to blackmail and extort Ellie, threatening Lucy and their children's safety if Ellie didn't give them what they wanted, which was a million dollars in cash and the deed to two real estate properties. Her immediate reaction was to make sure the kids were safe. There was a clear sign that we're watching us. We don't know with whom we're dealing with because we don't know the associates they have. Ellie came clean about the time someone keyed his Bentley. It wasn't a random act of vandalism and he'd known it. That call she'd gotten in the middle of the night had also been from Anna's husband. They had all sorts of information on Lucy and her family. Their phone numbers, license plates, their address. Anna and her husband had also sent someone to take photos of Lucy's kids and her. It was terrifying. Anna and her husband were three steps ahead and Lucy was scared of what they might do next. She had to think fast and went into solution mode all the while Ellie seemed to shrink. He was super scared, he has always been a coward. Lucy wanted protection right away, so she hired a private security detail. I had an armed guard for 24 hours in the front of my house. And this is very unusual where I live. Just imagine the shock on my children. What Anna and her husband were doing was a crime. It was extortion, despite how angry Lucy was. She worked with Ellie as a team. She told Ellie he needed to go to the police and report the crime. And he contacted the FBI. So the FBI took the case. The FBI needed proof of the extortion. So they planned to record a phone call with Ellie, Anna and her husband. And the FBI told them making believe that you're going to comply with what they want. We're going to record this and then we're going to arrest them. The call went off without a hitch. Anna's husband gave the FBI exactly what they needed. He said, you know what, I'm going to give you a break. Just give me the million dollars and you don't have to give me the 12 apartments because I want the money right now. So they have that on tape. So they sent SWAT to their apartment and they got them, both of them and their computers. They had all the evidence. Authorities were able to charge Anna and her husband with a federal crime. They charged him with extortion, both of them went to jail. Since her husband's confession, Lucy had been in fight or flight, terrified for her children's safety. Finally, it seemed like the threat was neutralized. She thought that once Anna and her husband were in jail, Ellie would apologize for what he had done and make amends for the family, but Ellie shut down. But the fact that he didn't seem to care about what he'd put the family through was what alarmed Lucy the most. How can you live with yourself knowing that you crushed the people that love you the most and portray yourself as a victim? Whether you have caused so much damage. As the shock of it all wore off, a new feeling emerged in its place. Betrayal. Who was this man she'd built a life with? Was anything he told her true? I started questioning many, many things. I felt I'd lived a life and I don't know who he's true self was. And this happened, I think, that was the most difficult thing to deal with. The betrayal of knowing that I don't know this person, that what I had in my mind is not true. He's not the person I thought he was, absolutely he's not. Ellie had been meeting women from sugardaddy.com for years. After every meetup, he'd return to their home, sit down at dinner with their kids and lie about where he'd been. He's not like I'm talking about five years, twenty one years of being fooled. He lived a far-sad. Lucy realized that Anna and her husband weren't the only threat to her safety. It was also Ellie. I had no idea what he was capable of doing. Ellie trails too much, too deep, it was hell. I went through the motions of living. That's it. I could hardly survive. I was just an entity walking around. She emotionally disconnected from Ellie. For weeks, he tried to win her back with grand gestures. The kind he'd made at the beginning of their relationship. He promised me I'll buy you an apartment in Madrid, let's move, let's do it. He promised me the world. But all the money in the world wouldn't fix it. Lucy couldn't be bought. It was too late. There was no coming back from this. I kicked him out of the house. For him was the shog that I left him. He never thought I was going to leave. Then Lucy filed for divorce. When Ellie saw that she was serious about leaving, it was like a switch flipped. She saw it in his eyes and heard it in his voice. He thought I'm going to destroy this woman because she left me and losing her way I'm going to destroy her in the process. After she filed for divorce, Ellie became vicious. He started being super mean to me and he would blame me on everything. He declared war. The man who promised her the world just a few weeks earlier began berating and insulting Lucy every chance he got. He told her, Lucy thought his cruel remarks were as low as he would go, but he was about to take his retaliation a step further. One day they got into an argument on Lucy's front lawn. Ellie was escalating, becoming increasingly agitated and getting in her personal space.
And he started talking to me with his finger in my face and I pushed him because he was on my face. He said, "You want to play with me? You're going to see what suffering is." He called 911 and 911 came. They arrest me for domestic violence. Lucy remembers this moment vividly. Ellie watched unfazed as she was being handcuffed. They took me to jail. I was in jail for three days, two nights in jail. It was unbelievable. Surrounded by strangers, she was too anxious to eat or even use the bathroom. She waited there until a friend was able to bail her out. Lucy has since gotten the domestic violence charge expunged. Narcissists, I think that they enjoy making you suffer because he makes them feel better. He makes them feel superior. He makes them feel in control. It was easy for him to pose as the victim and paint her as the villain. And he made it clear. He was willing to do it again. A few months later, it was time for Anna and her husband sentencing hearing. Lucy wanted to attend the hearing. She wrote a victim impact statement. I prepared a statement explaining everything that has happened and how he's affected my children. But Ellie told her she wasn't allowed to go to the hearing. If she showed up there, he said he'd have her arrested again. And since I was in jail not too long before, I just believed him because he was so convincing. Ellie was doing whatever he could to control the situation and keep Lucy in the dark. Not only did he intimidate Lucy out of attending the hearing, Ellie didn't attend either. He never went to present his testimony and he was the only witness. He's a coward. He didn't want anything on record. Because when you go to a court, everything is transcribed. So the judge never knew exactly what happened. They just said in general, but nothing like the tragedy and all their implications, the threatening, the impact on me and my kids, the judge never heard it. He didn't advocate for his family, for us. His reputation was more important. He didn't want anybody to hear what he did. He couldn't face the shame of it. Because Ellie wasn't there, the judge was very lenient with the sentencing. Anna's husband was sentenced to 15 months in jail and Anna was only given five. As for Lucy, she endured a much longer sentence, trying to put the pieces of her life back together after Ellie's betrayal. I was a mess. I barely could move for a year and a half. I was in bed crying, crying, crying. I would cry for days. I don't even remember many days. This guy destroyed my life so much away that he destroyed my soul. During their marriage, she and Ellie had cultivated a community of close friends. After his betrayal, she needed someone to turn to. But she'd stop getting replies or calls back from friends. Then she found out that Ellie had been telling everyone a very different story about their divorce. One, where Lucy was to blame. I would receive calls from friends that would say, "How could you be unfaithful to your husband like that?" "What? What are you talking about?" He started saying that I was unfaithful to him with a Russian guy. Just changed the story, making me the one that did everything he did. It was crazy. It was the definition of projection, but she couldn't stop the rumors. Many of their friends took Ellie's side and she has a theory about why. Unfortunately, money talks. People respect people with money, even if they're the devil in disguise. People want to be close to success, to successful people, not to people that are destroyed or amiss. I was amiss. I took a few pills because I want to numb myself, not because I want to die. I wanted to numb myself, but maybe I took too many. I ended up in the hospital in emergency and they transferred me to a psychiatric hospital. The doctors asked Lucy what was going on at home. When I told the psychiatrist where is my story, she thought I was making it up. She told me, "You're delusional. What a story." Lucy stayed in the psychiatric hospital for a few days. Ellie brought their kids to visit her. He looked very calm and collected. He told my 19-year-old son, "Listen, I think you should live alone because your mother is not well." So you shouldn't be with her and he gave him an apartment that was devastating. He took advantage of my vulnerability that he would talk about me like I was the crazy one. He keeps the financial control of everybody. It took five months for their divorce to be finalized. It caused him a fortune. It caused me my sanity. Looking back now, Lucy sees how wealth enabled Ellie. The more money you get, the more powerful you feel. He felt superior to everybody and he's above everybody. He thought he was untouchable. It's been almost 10 years since she discovered Ellie's betrayal. Not a day goes by that she doesn't think about it. I'm not sure if I forgive him, but if I don't, it's okay. Because you don't have to forgive everybody. Especially somebody that has been so accuracy, mean to you and your children, you know. He doesn't deserve forgiveness. The person she has forgiven is herself. She knows now that none of this was her fault. It took her a while to trust again, but when she did, it was worth it. A few years ago, she met someone new. She made me believe in life again. We got married in 2023. We're happily married and he's an amazing man. And he brings me joy every day. She's rebuilt a life that feels authentically hers. I just dedicated myself to what makes me happy. My two dogs are my life, my husband is my life, my children. I live a very quiet life. I love to read, I love to watch my Netflix. I just accept things for the way they are. I don't sweat little things. Finally, I'm a piece. We end every weekly episode with the same question. Why do you want to share your story? What happened to me was minimized by many people around me. And the hurt. But I think that my story was so extraordinary that it has to be heard. And you know something, in a way, I won validation because I have been strong. I went through hell for years. Not months, years. And I discovered that I'm stronger than I think. On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly. I remember everything. That man for so long had so much control over me. I cannot just stand by and do nothing. You will not get away with this. If you'd like to share your story on Betrayal, please email
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[email protected]. Please note that we are not a mental health organization. If you are in crisis or currently experiencing domestic violence, we encourage you to seek local help or dial 911. Please contact organizations that offer immediate support. In our show notes, we've included a list of US-based resources. You can follow us on Instagram @betrayalpod or find me @itsundrayagunning. To access our newsletter and additional content and to connect with the Betrayal community, join our substack @betrayal.substack.com. We're grateful for your support. One way to show support is by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review Betrayal. Five star reviews go a long way. Big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group and partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunnay.
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