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Speaker 1: I got a Facebook message. She's like, I've been down

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Speaker 1: a rabbit hole about Morgan. I have proof there's a

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Speaker 1: lot more to the story. And that's when it really

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Speaker 1: blew open.

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Speaker 2: I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, a show about

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Speaker 2: the people we trust the most and the deceptions that

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Speaker 2: change everything. This is part two of Kelsey's story. If

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Speaker 2: you haven't heard part one, you should go back and

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Speaker 2: listen to that first as a listener. Note names and

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Speaker 2: locations have been changed to protect privacy. Almost two years

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Speaker 2: into a marriage with Morgan, a seed of doubt have

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Speaker 2: been planted in Kelsey's mind about her wife's terminal cancer diagnosis.

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Speaker 2: It started when they were home with Kelsey's family for Christmas.

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Speaker 2: Her mom had survived breast cancer, and something about Morgan's

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Speaker 2: behavior wasn't adding up to her.

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Speaker 1: I suddenly was like, why am I feeling like something's wrong?

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Speaker 1: And so this is the very beginning of the conversations

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Speaker 1: we started having about how serious really is this? And

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Speaker 1: that was when she started breaking bones.

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Speaker 2: At first, it was her hip.

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Speaker 1: She took the dogs out for a walk and came

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Speaker 1: back and she was dragging herself back into the apartment.

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Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, what happened. She's like,

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Speaker 1: I think I broke my hip. I said, oh my god,

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Speaker 1: what do we do I need to take you to

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Speaker 1: the er. And she's like, no, this happens, like the

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Speaker 1: cancer must now be in my hip.

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Speaker 2: Kelsey was at a loss for what to do, but

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Speaker 2: Morgan told her this was just part of the dying process.

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Speaker 2: Her doctors told her to expect it.

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Speaker 1: And she's like, I need to sleep. I need to sleep.

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Speaker 1: So she took some drugs and then she slept, and

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Speaker 1: she slept for like a week.

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Speaker 2: Morgan recovered from the hip injury and went back to

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Speaker 2: physical activity.

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Speaker 1: A few weeks after that, she was walking again.

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Speaker 2: One day, when Morgan was out on a walk, she

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Speaker 2: fell again and this time she broke her elbow.

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Speaker 1: I could see it. It was bruised and it had

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Speaker 1: been obviously smashed. And then she had a sling. As

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Speaker 1: she was healing her elbow.

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Speaker 2: The broken bones became a cycle. After her elbow, Morgan

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Speaker 2: broke a rib.

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Speaker 1: She had fallen and she came back and she just

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Speaker 1: was like, oh my gosh, my rib, my rib my rib.

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Speaker 1: We looked at it. It was broken, and she took

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Speaker 1: herself to urgent care.

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Speaker 2: She came back with X rays showing her broken rib.

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Speaker 2: The doctors told her to rest. At the time, they

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Speaker 2: lived in an apartment complex and they were friends with

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Speaker 2: their downstairs neighbors. They usually went over every week for

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Speaker 2: game night.

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Speaker 1: After she had broken her rib, was at home for

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Speaker 1: a couple of weeks and we had missed a game night,

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Speaker 1: and I had gone down personally to you know, apologize

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Speaker 1: he ever seen this game night and to ask how

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Speaker 1: things were going. So I was in person in their apartment.

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Speaker 1: I was like explaining, oh, I got her rib, and

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Speaker 1: one of them was like, oh my god, someone's got

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Speaker 1: to say it. I saw her. I saw her with

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Speaker 1: her rib, and I was like, I don't know what

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Speaker 1: you mean.

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Speaker 2: There was a cement wall in the back of their

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Speaker 2: apartment complex, and their neighbor had seen Morgan behaving strangely.

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Speaker 1: And she's like the day that she broke her rib,

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Speaker 1: I saw her falling onto that cement wall, like jumping

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Speaker 1: onto this wall.

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Speaker 2: Her neighbor saw Morgan throwing herself against a cement wall.

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Speaker 2: And it wasn't just one time.

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Speaker 1: She was like, I watched her do it several times.

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Speaker 1: I thought it was weird and I was really defensive.

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Speaker 1: I was like, oh, you might have just like misunderstood

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Speaker 1: the situation because that doesn't make any sense, and they're like,

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Speaker 1: you need to talk to your wife about this.

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Speaker 2: Kelsey felt like her neighbors were accusing her of lying,

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Speaker 2: and the neighbor's story didn't make any sense. If they

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Speaker 2: saw Morgan falling, why wouldn't they help her.

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Speaker 1: I remember coming home and being like, why did the

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Speaker 1: neighbor think that she saw you? And she's like, it

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Speaker 1: was a really big fall. I'm surprised she didn't make

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Speaker 1: sure I was okay as I, Yeah, that seems weird,

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Speaker 1: Like I just get a weird vibe from them, like

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Speaker 1: I really don't think they want to be friends with

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Speaker 1: us anymore. And she's like, well, we don't want to

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Speaker 1: be friends with anyone who think we're liars anyway, Like

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Speaker 1: why would anyone lie about this?

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Speaker 2: Regardless of how Morgan had broken her rib, she was

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Speaker 2: clearly injured again. Morgan's doctor recommended she stay physically active,

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Speaker 2: but to Kelsey this seemed unsafe, so she.

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Speaker 1: Told Morgan, you have to stop leaving the house like this,

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Speaker 1: and I need to see your paperwork, like I need

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Speaker 1: to see the doctor's recommend that this is okay, because

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Speaker 1: clearly it's not. And it was a huge argument. It

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Speaker 1: was a huge blow up that I was too controlling,

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Speaker 1: that I was obsessing over her death. And I finally

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Speaker 1: was like okay, and then I left the apartment.

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Speaker 2: Kelsey went on a walk around the block alone for

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Speaker 2: the first time in a long time.

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Speaker 1: And so I was on this walk thinking I don't

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Speaker 1: know how to manage this anymore.

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Speaker 2: Between Morgan's cancer, her constant injuries, working to support them both,

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Speaker 2: and her graduate school program, Kelsey couldn't take it anymore.

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Speaker 1: On that walk, I called my friend and I was like,

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Speaker 1: I'm not okay. I think I need to leave.

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Speaker 2: That night, Kelsey made up her mind she was going

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Speaker 2: to transfer schools, move to a new city on her own.

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Speaker 1: The academic advisor called me the very next day and

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Speaker 1: was like, oh, we'd love to sell y'all for an interview,

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Speaker 1: And so I flew that Thursday and did my interview

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Speaker 1: in person.

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Speaker 2: She was in a frenzy before she was even accepted.

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Speaker 2: She made plans to move everything, and her body was

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Speaker 2: telling her to get away from Morgan.

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Speaker 1: So I just literally packed everything in my car. I

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Speaker 1: got a job and a place to live. When I

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Speaker 1: went to interview, I just moved at lightning speed. When

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Speaker 1: she told Morgan she was leaving, she was just shocked.

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Speaker 1: I was like, I think we just need a little

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Speaker 1: bit of breather space. You stay here, You've got everything

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Speaker 1: that you need. I'll continue paying for rent here, I'll

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Speaker 1: pay for your food, I'll pay for everything. But I

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Speaker 1: have to go do my master's program. And then then

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Speaker 1: I left. If she might have thought I was having

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Speaker 1: a mental breakdown, because honestly I was.

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Speaker 2: That night she drove fifteen hours straight.

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Speaker 1: Oh my way, I called my sister. My sister was like,

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Speaker 1: you are a really terrible person, Like I can't believe

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Speaker 1: that you would leave in this way when Morgan could

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Speaker 1: die at any time.

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Speaker 2: At the time, she wasn't ready to share her doubts

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Speaker 2: about Morgan's diagnosis with anyone else.

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Speaker 1: I just felt like I didn't have enough evidence of that.

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Speaker 1: I just wanted it to be behind me.

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Speaker 2: Still, her sister's words made her feel horrible. Because of

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Speaker 2: this guilt, Kelsey stayed in touch with Morgan over the

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Speaker 2: phone as much as she could, especially when right after

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Speaker 2: her move, Kelsey needed emergency surgery for her appendix. Now

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Speaker 2: the shoe was on the other foot and Kelsey needed

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Speaker 2: morgan support.

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Speaker 1: I remember calling Morgan at the er. She's like, oh, I,

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Speaker 1: I'm so sorry.

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Speaker 2: While Kelsey was in the hospital recovering, she received a

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Speaker 2: strange text.

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Speaker 1: I actually got a text from her mom and it

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Speaker 1: was almost like the fourth wall broke.

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Speaker 2: The last time she had heard from Morgan's mom was

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Speaker 2: before they'd gotten married, and that was over email, the

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Speaker 2: emails where she called Kelsey the devil. They had never texted.

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Speaker 1: And she sent the most thoughtful text to me. It

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Speaker 1: was like, so sorry, this is happening. We're hoping you heal.

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Speaker 2: This was at odds with everything Kelsey knew about this woman.

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Speaker 1: I was like, what, Like, Morgan didn't have relationship with

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Speaker 1: her parents, and suddenly they knew this very intimate detail

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Speaker 1: about my health.

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Speaker 2: That text from Morgan's mom opened a door to what

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Speaker 2: might be a different reality. She decided not to tell

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Speaker 2: Morgan about it.

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Speaker 1: That suddenly felt like I was uncovering something.

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Speaker 2: After Kelsey recovered from surgery, she settled into her new city.

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Speaker 2: She could finally feel the relief of being away from Morgan.

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Speaker 2: The next time they talked, Kelsey asked for a divorce,

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Speaker 2: and to her surprise, Morgan agreed.

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Speaker 1: She's like, Okay, I've got a family friend who's married

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Speaker 1: to a divorce lawyer, and she will start working up

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Speaker 1: the divorce paperwork. Because I had no idea how to divorce,

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Speaker 1: I just assumed it would be complicated.

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Speaker 2: So she let Morgan handle the paperwork. It was clear

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Speaker 2: to both of them that their relationship was over. Morgan

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Speaker 2: took it really hard.

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Speaker 1: The divorce had activated her eating disorder, so she was

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Speaker 1: going back into an eating disorder clinic in her home state.

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Speaker 2: Kelsey felt intense guilt for leaving Morgan. She'd spent two

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Speaker 2: years taking care of her. She'd seen the broken bones,

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Speaker 2: the nausea, the exhaustion, all of the medications. But the

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Speaker 2: more time Kelsey took for herself, the more she realized

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Speaker 2: Morgan was hiding something. What it was, she didn't know

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Speaker 2: for sure, but what she did know was that she

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Speaker 2: needed a fresh start.

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Speaker 1: I can finally at least separate myself from whatever lie

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Speaker 1: she is or is not telling herself or me.

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Speaker 2: Kelsey tried to move on and put this relationship behind her.

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Speaker 2: She wanted to clean slate.

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Speaker 1: I felt like it was the start of a whole

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Speaker 1: new chapter of my life. It was the first time

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Speaker 1: I was dating someone new who didn't have a health crisis.

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Speaker 1: This is when I was in a master's program. I

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Speaker 1: just loved my school, I loved being with my dog.

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Speaker 1: I loved the new life I was creating. And I

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Speaker 1: reflected back on the years before, and I really felt

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Speaker 1: like I had missed everything, and so I felt like

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Speaker 1: this was the start of something brand new.

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Speaker 2: Part of that reset was acting like the relationship with

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Speaker 2: Morgan never happened.

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Speaker 1: I felt stupid for having been in this dynamic for

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Speaker 1: so long. It would be so much easier to start

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Speaker 1: completely over if I just don't bring in this very,

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Speaker 1: very complicated backstory that I now had with my ex.

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Speaker 2: But she still had to communicate with Morgan about the

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Speaker 2: divorce paperwork.

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Speaker 1: I would have to check in and be like, wait,

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Speaker 1: where is this divorce happening? Like I was always just

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Speaker 1: kind of like dragged back to the reality of something

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Speaker 1: I really didn't want to face.

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Speaker 2: As the months went by, the divorce still hadn't been finalized.

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Speaker 1: And throughout this whole time period, there'd be times where

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Speaker 1: I was like checking in and Morgan would be like, oh,

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Speaker 1: I'm filing paperwork and it's still being processed.

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Speaker 2: While Kelsey was in the middle of her emotional recovery,

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Speaker 2: she got a red envelope in the mail.

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Speaker 1: I started getting collection notices. The first big one was

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Speaker 1: the car.

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Speaker 2: Morgan had stopped paying her car payment, so it went

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Speaker 2: to collections.

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Speaker 1: Kelsey assumed, like, she's getting the same notification, so she's

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Speaker 1: going to pay for it, right. That was the first notification,

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Speaker 1: And then I started getting mail constantly, phone bills, credit

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Speaker 1: card debts, things that had my name and her name

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Speaker 1: on together. And it was significant. It was like thousands

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Speaker 1: and thousands of dollars.

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Speaker 2: The notices weren't slowing down, and the debt was impacting

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Speaker 2: Kelsey's credit.

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Speaker 1: I was just starting to get really frustrated. I was like,

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Speaker 1: how is this happening? So the very first thing I

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Speaker 1: did was try to contact her. She didn't answer, She'd

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Speaker 1: block me.

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Speaker 2: Morgan had blocked her, and their divorce still wasn't finalized.

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Speaker 2: So Kelsey decided to take matters into her own hands.

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Speaker 1: So I paid an attorney to check all the legal

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Speaker 1: processes in every state we had lived in to see

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Speaker 1: if they had started divorce paperwork at all. And Morgan

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Speaker 1: had never ever filed.

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Speaker 2: Morgan told Kelsey with confidence that she had filed for divorce,

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Speaker 2: and Kelsey believed her, trusted her.

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Speaker 1: And I was like, there's no way she would lie

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Speaker 1: about this, But she had lied.

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Speaker 2: Kelsey's lawyer had the proof. The time Kelsey spent trying

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Speaker 2: to put Morgan behind her now came with a price.

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Speaker 1: Oh my god. I have been avoiding the reality of

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Speaker 1: this forever, Like I haven't ever thought to check anything

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Speaker 1: regarding her divorce paperwork. I didn't know to like flag

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Speaker 1: her on any of my banks, to not have access

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Speaker 1: to my stuff, like we were legally married. And so

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Speaker 1: suddenly I realized there was so many connections that I

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Speaker 1: still had to her and didn't know the gravity of

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Speaker 1: until I was presenting this lawyer this debt paperwork.

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Speaker 2: Morgan's debt had piled up to an astonishing number.

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Speaker 1: Just the payoff alone, like just what I knew collectors

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Speaker 1: had sent to me that was dinging on my credit

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Speaker 1: report was about sixty thousand.

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Speaker 2: Kelsey hadn't been able to reach Morgan, she had no

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Speaker 2: idea where she was living, but she was clearly still alive,

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Speaker 2: charging credit cards with Kelsey's name on them. So they

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Speaker 2: hired a private investigator to track Morgan down and serve

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Speaker 2: her the paperwork.

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Speaker 1: My lawyer sent the paperwork to her and she signed,

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Speaker 1: so now I could also file a financial restrain order

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Speaker 1: against her. I remember leaving the courthouse and just sabbing,

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Speaker 1: like walking into my car and just crying. It was

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Speaker 1: the first time I had like a binder in my

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Speaker 1: hands of our marriage certificate and are divorce to creed,

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Speaker 1: and I finally could put a stop to anything more happening.

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Speaker 2: With the divorce decree in hand, Kelsey believed that Morgan

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Speaker 2: and the chaos that came with her was now truly

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Speaker 2: behind her. She wasn't avoiding it anymore.

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Speaker 1: I was really surprised when in late twenty twenty, I

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Speaker 1: got a Facebook message from Joanne.

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Speaker 2: It was Morgan's mentor, the woman who'd been like a

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Speaker 2: second mother to her. Kelsey hadn't spoken to her since

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Speaker 2: that awkward road trip visit years ago. Joanne said she

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Speaker 2: needed to speak with Kelsey.

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Speaker 3: It was urgent, So we get on a Facebook video

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Speaker 3: call and she's like, a couple months ago, I was

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Speaker 3: listening to a podcast about factitious disorder and it just

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Speaker 3: sounds so much like Morgan that I just couldn't shake

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Speaker 3: this feeling.

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Speaker 2: Factitious disorder is the official term for Munchausen syndrome, which

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Speaker 2: is when someone fakes being sick for sympathy and attention.

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Speaker 2: Joanne went on to explain, I've.

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Speaker 1: Been down a rabbit hole about Morgan, and I have

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Speaker 1: proof that she had been diagnosed with factitious disorder before

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Speaker 1: she ever met you, and I proved that she was

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Speaker 1: faking breaking her bones.

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Speaker 2: Just as Kelsey was finally feeling in control of her life,

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Speaker 2: she got a Facebook message out of the blue. It

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Speaker 2: was from Joanne, Morgan's mentor. Joanne had uncovered something that

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Speaker 2: she needed to share with Kelsey.

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Speaker 1: This is when she broke down all of her findings,

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Speaker 1: which she could on paper point two and say like, no,

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Speaker 1: I got this record, this was a lie, and this

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Speaker 1: statement for this person's a life.

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Speaker 2: Joanne had met Morgan when Morgan was a college athlete.

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Speaker 2: She'd taken Morgan in when she was going through a

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Speaker 2: hard time with her family, and Joanne was there when

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Speaker 2: Morgan broke her wrists for the first time. When Morgan

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00:16:42,040 --> 00:16:44,840
Speaker 2: came back from the hospital in a cast, she told

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Speaker 2: Joanne the doctors had found bone cancer.

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Speaker 1: Morgan had told Joanne that she needed to start cancer treatments,

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Speaker 1: and so she had supplies that she had brought back

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Speaker 1: and she was having Joanne administer cancer treatment intraveaneously. That's

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Speaker 1: why Joanne had confirmed to me that she had cancer,

301
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Speaker 1: because she's like, yeah, I was doing treatments with her

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Speaker 1: when she had cancer. It was really scary, and so

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00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:10,520
Speaker 1: they bonded over that. It was like, oh my gosh,

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Speaker 1: of course I'll help you. You're away from family.

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00:17:13,359 --> 00:17:18,399
Speaker 2: This all happened before Kelsey ever met Morgan. Now years later,

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Speaker 2: Joanne was coming to Kelsey with proof that the story

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Speaker 2: they'd both been told was a lie.

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Speaker 1: Joanne had found out that Morgan had secured saline and

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Speaker 1: supplies to give herself IV treatments, but they were never

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Speaker 1: actual treatments.

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Speaker 2: Joanne got medical records that told the real story what

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Speaker 2: was actually happening.

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Speaker 1: Morgan would come out of the hospital like having fixed

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Speaker 1: her broken wrist, and then would break it again and

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Speaker 1: tell everyone that it was cancer related, that our cancer

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Speaker 1: had come back. But in reality, she was going back

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Speaker 1: to the doctor and being like, oh, my broken bone,

318
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Speaker 1: will you fix it? And they would fix it. But

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Speaker 1: after four or five times of this happening, during that

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Speaker 1: school year. They had actually had to blacklist her from

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00:18:06,359 --> 00:18:10,080
Speaker 1: the hospital because she had exhausted the hospitals in that area.

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Speaker 2: It was a bombshell finding refusing care and blacklisting someone

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Speaker 2: from a hospital is a very big deal.

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Speaker 1: The fact that Morgan had been assigned this label and

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Speaker 1: not allowed to get treatment at these hospitals anymore was

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Speaker 1: like a really serious thing, and they had officially listed

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Speaker 1: it as facts at the time. Was called Munchausen. That's

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Speaker 1: how they formally called it on her record, like, do

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Speaker 1: not treat her, this is unhealthy, and they had kept

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Speaker 1: encouraging her to get psychiatric care.

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Speaker 2: But according to the records Joanne had, Morgan didn't get

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Speaker 2: psychiatric care. Instead, she went to summer camp.

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Speaker 1: And so after lying about it to all the doctors

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Speaker 1: in the city of her college, this is the summer

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Speaker 1: that she met me.

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Speaker 2: After Morgan and Kelsey met, Morgan didn't need Joanne anymore.

337
00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:13,240
Speaker 2: She had a new caretaker. The tension Kelsey witnessed between

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00:19:13,240 --> 00:19:15,680
Speaker 2: Morgan and Joanne when she saw them the last time

339
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Speaker 2: was real. Joanne was starting to question Morgan's story.

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Speaker 1: Joanne was mutual friends with someone and that person didn't

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Speaker 1: even know that Morgan was dying of cancer. She just

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00:19:25,920 --> 00:19:28,560
Speaker 1: started kind of hitting parts of the story that didn't

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00:19:28,560 --> 00:19:31,879
Speaker 1: make a lot of sense. That's why she kept trying

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Speaker 1: to tell me something, but felt like she didn't have

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Speaker 1: enough proof to tell me.

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Speaker 2: But now Joanne had the proof and the two of

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00:19:40,560 --> 00:19:42,679
Speaker 2: them could begin piecing everything together.

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00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:47,920
Speaker 1: We started comparing stories and realized there's a lot more

349
00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:49,960
Speaker 1: to this story than we even know Between the two

350
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Speaker 1: of us.

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Speaker 2: A key component of Morgan pulling off this deception was

352
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Speaker 2: keeping people isolated from each other. If Kelsey and Joanne

353
00:19:59,119 --> 00:20:02,200
Speaker 2: were going to find the truth, they needed to connect

354
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Speaker 2: with other people in Morgan's life.

355
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Speaker 1: This is where it really blew open.

356
00:20:06,359 --> 00:20:09,439
Speaker 2: Kelsey went back to the very beginning, the mutual friend

357
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Speaker 2: who vouched for Morgan at camp.

358
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Speaker 1: Even my friend from camp knew one version of the story.

359
00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:20,240
Speaker 1: She had never mentioned having cancer ever to this friend.

360
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Speaker 1: So that was the first like, oh, she was lying

361
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Speaker 1: from the very beginning.

362
00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:31,040
Speaker 2: Even parts of the story that Kelsey never questioned before

363
00:20:31,920 --> 00:20:35,399
Speaker 2: now seemed like they could be lies. Starting with the

364
00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:39,520
Speaker 2: letter Morgan said she received from the camp director warning

365
00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:43,919
Speaker 2: her that her eating disorder was interfering with her job performance.

366
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Speaker 1: She had never been talked to by camp staff about

367
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Speaker 1: being removed from camp. Ever, that was never even a conversation.

368
00:20:53,240 --> 00:20:55,600
Speaker 1: No one actually knew anything about her eating disorder.

369
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Speaker 2: Kelsey couldn't believe this fundamental part of their origin story

370
00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:05,800
Speaker 2: could be fabricated. But the lie was confirmed when she discovered.

371
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Speaker 1: She had never been hospitalized for eating disorder. The clinic

372
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Speaker 1: that she gave me was a fake name.

373
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Speaker 2: Every new person Kelsey talked to had been told a

374
00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:19,600
Speaker 2: different story. Sometimes it was an entirely different story.

375
00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:23,119
Speaker 1: It wasn't always cancer that the lie was about. It

376
00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:27,240
Speaker 1: was oftentimes Oh, I found my birth mother, so there

377
00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:29,760
Speaker 1: was like a birth mother network of lies.

378
00:21:31,040 --> 00:21:35,760
Speaker 2: One lie in particular, was extremely difficult for Kelsey to accept.

379
00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:40,560
Speaker 1: Morgan had actually maintained a relationship with her family the

380
00:21:40,560 --> 00:21:42,000
Speaker 1: whole time I knew her.

381
00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:45,919
Speaker 2: Kelsey tracked down Morgan's siblings. That's when she learned her

382
00:21:45,920 --> 00:21:49,919
Speaker 2: family had no idea about Morgan's cancer. And when Morgan

383
00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:52,800
Speaker 2: told the family she was dating a woman, everyone was

384
00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:56,359
Speaker 2: accepting of her. So who sent the hate emails?

385
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Speaker 1: I did some digging on the emails that her parents

386
00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:05,520
Speaker 1: had been sending me, and all of them went back

387
00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:09,240
Speaker 1: to the same computer that I had bought her, which

388
00:22:09,359 --> 00:22:12,400
Speaker 1: meant that all of the emails that her parents had

389
00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:16,560
Speaker 1: sent me when we first started dating were from Morgan.

390
00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:23,280
Speaker 1: Morgan had written them. This hateful, homophobic rhetoric came from

391
00:22:23,280 --> 00:22:29,359
Speaker 1: my partner. That was so devastating because I had such

392
00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:34,960
Speaker 1: trauma and so much internalized shame for being gay.

393
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Speaker 2: So much of Kelsey's decision to support Morgan was because

394
00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:43,280
Speaker 2: she had no family left. They'd all disowned her because

395
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:47,760
Speaker 2: she was gay. It was just lie on top of lie.

396
00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:53,080
Speaker 1: Every single component of the intensity, like the first four

397
00:22:53,119 --> 00:22:57,880
Speaker 1: months of knowing her, was completely fabricated in every way.

398
00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:03,400
Speaker 2: Time. All of the intensity felt very real to Kelsey,

399
00:23:03,920 --> 00:23:08,680
Speaker 2: from the hate emails to Morgan's symptoms, the fatigue, the vomiting.

400
00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:11,240
Speaker 2: How could Morgan fake.

401
00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:11,600
Speaker 1: All of that?

402
00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:14,560
Speaker 2: Well, Kelsey found out.

403
00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:17,520
Speaker 1: I learned that she was taking medications that made her

404
00:23:17,560 --> 00:23:19,840
Speaker 1: throw up, that made it relate with thargaic clear seizure meds.

405
00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:22,360
Speaker 1: I learned that she would steal medications.

406
00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:25,720
Speaker 2: Morgan didn't come up with the whole plan by herself.

407
00:23:26,400 --> 00:23:27,640
Speaker 2: She had source material.

408
00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:31,359
Speaker 1: This is when I had seen the movie The Faults

409
00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:34,320
Speaker 1: in Our Stars and realized that she was feeding me

410
00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:37,520
Speaker 1: the same lines from the book and from the movie.

411
00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:40,000
Speaker 2: The Fault in Our Stars is a book by John

412
00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:42,960
Speaker 2: Green that was adapted into a film. It follows two

413
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:47,000
Speaker 2: teenagers with terminal cancer. Some of the exact lines from

414
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:50,000
Speaker 2: the movie were things Morgan had said to her, like

415
00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:53,040
Speaker 2: claiming that her cancer scans quote lit up like a

416
00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:58,119
Speaker 2: Christmas tree. Kelsey felt like her relationship had been scripted.

417
00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:03,200
Speaker 1: My entire exition stints with her was a lie, all

418
00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:03,560
Speaker 1: of it.

419
00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:09,040
Speaker 2: Now that Kelsey had broken open Morgan's lies, she wanted

420
00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:11,560
Speaker 2: to make sure that there were no remaining ties with her.

421
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:15,040
Speaker 2: She discovered there was still one bank account open that

422
00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:18,159
Speaker 2: they shared. It was an account Kelsey never knew about,

423
00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:21,320
Speaker 2: but her name was on it. In order to close

424
00:24:21,359 --> 00:24:24,240
Speaker 2: the account, she had to move the money out of it.

425
00:24:24,240 --> 00:24:26,399
Speaker 1: It was technically my account to close because we were

426
00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:26,960
Speaker 1: both on it.

427
00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:31,560
Speaker 2: There was twenty thousand dollars in this account, all of

428
00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:33,320
Speaker 2: Morgan's checking and savings.

429
00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:36,920
Speaker 1: I suddenly had access to all of her money after

430
00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:39,439
Speaker 1: all these years of piecing the story together, and like,

431
00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:43,040
Speaker 1: I suddenly have access to everything. In order to close it,

432
00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:46,000
Speaker 1: I had to put the money somewhere, So I had

433
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:47,200
Speaker 1: to do something with the money.

434
00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:50,680
Speaker 2: So she asked her friends and family what to do.

435
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:55,359
Speaker 1: Everyone was like keep the money, like that is your money.

436
00:24:55,880 --> 00:24:59,520
Speaker 1: She couldn't dispute it even if she wanted to. And

437
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:01,760
Speaker 1: I was like, no, no, no, no, I'm not taking any of

438
00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:02,640
Speaker 1: that bad karma.

439
00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:06,719
Speaker 2: Kelsey had financially supported Morgan for years. When they separated,

440
00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:10,840
Speaker 2: she took on sixty thousand dollars of Morgan's debt. Even

441
00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:14,760
Speaker 2: after all of that, Kelsey decided to send the money

442
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:18,160
Speaker 2: back to Morgan. She was ready to wash her hands

443
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:19,000
Speaker 2: of the whole thing.

444
00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:25,479
Speaker 1: I sent her a letter along with the check, and

445
00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:28,280
Speaker 1: I said, I paid off everything you owed. I could

446
00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:31,760
Speaker 1: have taken thousands and thousands. I could have taken everything,

447
00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:33,040
Speaker 1: and it still would not be a drop on the

448
00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:37,320
Speaker 1: bucket of what money you took from me. You lied

449
00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:40,280
Speaker 1: to me. I know every lie you've ever told. Never

450
00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:42,919
Speaker 1: talk to me again, and I really hope that you're

451
00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:47,520
Speaker 1: getting the help that you need. And that was the

452
00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:48,200
Speaker 1: last thing I sent.

453
00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:06,040
Speaker 2: After nearly five years, Kelsey was finally free of Morgan

454
00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:10,479
Speaker 2: and her deception, liberated from the lies, the financial and

455
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:15,280
Speaker 2: emotional burden that she endured. Today, Kelsey thinks back on

456
00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:18,040
Speaker 2: the innocent woman at Girl Scout Camp who walked right

457
00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:19,240
Speaker 2: into Morgan's web.

458
00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:22,640
Speaker 1: Like I was the perfect person for Morgan to meet

459
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:25,560
Speaker 1: at camp. Could not have been more perfect, Like a

460
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:29,879
Speaker 1: history of family dysfunction, the tendency to get in relationships

461
00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:33,240
Speaker 1: where I'm caregiving, and I had a mom food cancer.

462
00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:37,879
Speaker 2: Before Morgan, Kelsey had never even heard about abuse in

463
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:40,080
Speaker 2: a lesbian relationship.

464
00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:43,639
Speaker 1: So as a queer person, I almost felt safer with

465
00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:46,080
Speaker 1: women than I ever felt with men, Like I never

466
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:48,400
Speaker 1: thought that that would happen to me in this intimate

467
00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:50,520
Speaker 1: or precise or manipulative way.

468
00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:54,520
Speaker 2: For a long time, Kelsey struggled to tell other people

469
00:26:54,600 --> 00:26:58,639
Speaker 2: what she went through. Would they believe her? Would they

470
00:26:58,720 --> 00:26:59,200
Speaker 2: judge her?

471
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:04,320
Speaker 1: A common question I get is how did you not know?

472
00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:09,800
Speaker 1: Or if you were married, how did you not know

473
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:14,919
Speaker 1: the medicine or the doctors? Especially because this story with

474
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:19,919
Speaker 1: Morgan is so extreme, I agree. If I was on

475
00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:22,040
Speaker 1: the outside, I listened to plenty of true crimes and

476
00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:25,760
Speaker 1: factitious disorder our stuff that I'm like, obviously you'd know.

477
00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:31,000
Speaker 2: So how did she not know? Well? The short answer

478
00:27:31,119 --> 00:27:35,119
Speaker 2: is that she believed a woman she loved. The question

479
00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:39,000
Speaker 2: used to bother her, but now she understands where it's coming.

480
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:41,640
Speaker 1: From I really think it comes from a deep desire

481
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:44,880
Speaker 1: to feel like it couldn't happen to us. And more

482
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:48,080
Speaker 1: than that, it comes from this desire of like protecting

483
00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:54,159
Speaker 1: ourselves hearing other people's pain. And I can sympathize with

484
00:27:54,200 --> 00:27:55,639
Speaker 1: that completely.

485
00:27:57,119 --> 00:27:59,639
Speaker 2: When she does tell the story to other people, she

486
00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:01,119
Speaker 2: noticed this is her own shame.

487
00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:06,200
Speaker 1: Whenever I cringe telling this story, I've had to pause

488
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:10,000
Speaker 1: and ask myself what part of me is cringing? And

489
00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:13,160
Speaker 1: the part of me that's cringing is always coming from

490
00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:16,439
Speaker 1: a shameful, guilty place.

491
00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:22,320
Speaker 2: It's a relatable experience. All of us can point to

492
00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:25,240
Speaker 2: a moment in our lives and cringe at our choices.

493
00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:29,840
Speaker 2: Kelsey's come to realize shame doesn't work.

494
00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:32,560
Speaker 1: Shame has never been a motivator of change for me.

495
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:36,320
Speaker 2: She's had to reflect on her own part in the relationship,

496
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:39,880
Speaker 2: those key moments where she chose to stay with Morgan,

497
00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:42,600
Speaker 2: even when she knew something wasn't right.

498
00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:46,240
Speaker 1: It's so easy to hear my story and be like,

499
00:28:46,560 --> 00:28:49,960
Speaker 1: this terrible thing happened to this great person, And to

500
00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:53,160
Speaker 1: be honest, I have had to reckon with my own

501
00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:57,320
Speaker 1: innerdements about this, like what parts of me were attracted

502
00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:01,920
Speaker 1: to a person that needed to be taken care of.

503
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:04,640
Speaker 1: I can reflect back on a lot in my early

504
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:08,360
Speaker 1: childhood where to be caregiving and to be codependent. In

505
00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:12,880
Speaker 1: that way, we're very much rewarded. So it's not just like, Wow,

506
00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:16,680
Speaker 1: this terrible thing happened to me. Truly, it's like I

507
00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:19,040
Speaker 1: can see what I said yes to in this complicitly.

508
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:22,880
Speaker 1: I can see where I turned an eye away from

509
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:25,240
Speaker 1: what I knew in my body was the truth because

510
00:29:25,280 --> 00:29:28,640
Speaker 1: I didn't want to lose something I loved or am embarrassed.

511
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:30,600
Speaker 1: I didn't leave sooner because I was afraid of what

512
00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:33,680
Speaker 1: it would look like. And it's true.

513
00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:37,360
Speaker 2: Kelsey has cultivated sympathy for the younger version of herself

514
00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:41,680
Speaker 2: who made those choices. After all, she was acting out

515
00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:42,120
Speaker 2: of love.

516
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:45,520
Speaker 1: When I hear other people's horrific stories of things that

517
00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:47,560
Speaker 1: have happened to them, I now have a lens of

518
00:29:47,800 --> 00:29:50,880
Speaker 1: what a human experience to love so deeply that we're

519
00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:56,160
Speaker 1: willing to suspend disbelief That high is like, I truly

520
00:29:56,240 --> 00:29:59,640
Speaker 1: believe that deception really comes from a deep desire to

521
00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:02,760
Speaker 1: be loved, and I can sympathize with a desire to

522
00:30:02,800 --> 00:30:03,320
Speaker 1: be loved.

523
00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:08,920
Speaker 2: There's a meta element to Kelsey's story. It was a

524
00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:12,480
Speaker 2: podcast that helped Joanne and then Kelsey discover the truth.

525
00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:15,640
Speaker 1: And I remember listening to that podcast and thinking like

526
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:19,000
Speaker 1: that is so brave because I was so embarrassed about

527
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:23,120
Speaker 1: my own story and I still struggle with that with myself.

528
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:26,680
Speaker 1: But it's like, I want there to be less stigma

529
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:29,440
Speaker 1: around manipulative relationships.

530
00:30:30,600 --> 00:30:33,719
Speaker 2: Kelsey feels like it's come full circle. She's telling her

531
00:30:33,760 --> 00:30:36,400
Speaker 2: own story now for someone else who needs to hear it.

532
00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:40,480
Speaker 2: We end all of our episodes with the same question,

533
00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:42,840
Speaker 2: why did you want to tell your story?

534
00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:48,600
Speaker 1: I didn't want to tell the story ever. Again, the

535
00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:53,320
Speaker 1: thing that made me is knowing that it took me

536
00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:56,520
Speaker 1: so many years to untangle myself from the shame of

537
00:30:56,560 --> 00:31:00,360
Speaker 1: not recognizing that as trauma sooner. But there are so

538
00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:04,960
Speaker 1: many little things that feel important to say out loud

539
00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:07,600
Speaker 1: that we should be making more space for people to

540
00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:12,840
Speaker 1: be critical of their interpersonal relationships without shame, Like if

541
00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:16,000
Speaker 1: that trust has been breached, then it's time to go.

542
00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:21,080
Speaker 1: You don't have to wait for evidence to leave. I

543
00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:24,200
Speaker 1: think we need more models of that happening, and so

544
00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:27,440
Speaker 1: I truly believe that I can reflect this story with

545
00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:31,800
Speaker 1: love and also hold someone accountable for doing something truly terrible.

546
00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:36,400
Speaker 2: On the next episode of Betrayal.

547
00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:39,080
Speaker 1: If he can lie about that, he can lie about anything.

548
00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:44,280
Speaker 1: He used his dead mother's name, he used his dead

549
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:47,480
Speaker 1: father's name, he used I think his aunt, he used

550
00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:49,120
Speaker 1: my name, all these people.

551
00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:54,960
Speaker 2: If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal

552
00:31:55,000 --> 00:31:57,880
Speaker 2: team or want to tell us your Betrayal story, email

553
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 2: us at Betrayalpod at gmail dot com. That's Betrayal Pod

554
00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:06,720
Speaker 2: at gmail dot com. We're grateful for your support. One

555
00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:09,080
Speaker 2: way to show support is by subscribing to our show

556
00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:11,760
Speaker 2: on Apple Podcasts and don't forget to rate and review

557
00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:15,320
Speaker 2: Betrayal vive star reviews go a long way. A big

558
00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:18,720
Speaker 2: thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a

559
00:32:18,720 --> 00:32:21,840
Speaker 2: production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group

560
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:25,640
Speaker 2: and partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced

561
00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:29,160
Speaker 2: by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by

562
00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:33,680
Speaker 2: me Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Monique Leboard, also

563
00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:37,880
Speaker 2: produced by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Kristin Mercury and

564
00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:42,120
Speaker 2: Caitlin Golden. Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Kriinchech.

565
00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:46,160
Speaker 2: Audio editing and mixing by Matt del Vecchio, additional editing

566
00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:50,720
Speaker 2: support from Tanner Robbins. Betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Bains.

567
00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:55,520
Speaker 2: Music library provided by my Music and For more podcasts

568
00:32:55,520 --> 00:32:59,480
Speaker 2: from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

569
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:00,440
Speaker 2: you get your podcast